I've received a lot of comments, calls, and texts since I revealed the City of Oakland's parking tow sting operation on Saturday.
Working backward and reading some of them, a friend told me just a few minutes ago that just last, on College Avenue and Kasel, she saw an Oakland parking enforcement person - she used the term "meter maid" but that implies a level of civility of behavior I've not yet seen in the staffers - actually measuring the distance of a car's wheel to the curb and a red zone before giving them a ticket!
Now, to say that's beyond the pale is an understatement but it shows just how much the City of Oakland's trying to squeeze money out of Oaklanders where they feel it the most (other than housing): transportation.
The other story comes from a reader who explains:
Not only is the city selectively issuing parking tickets by neighborhood what the city is doing is an unfair practice. It is akin to the banks "generating" exorbitant charges just by the order they allow over drafts to be paid. Yes the account is over drawn, but five small checks would not have been if the banks would not have forced the largest amount to the head of the payment line depleting the account. This created multiple bank overdraft charges when there may have only been one overdraft.
In prior years we complained about that bank practice but feeling isolated we were unable to act collectively. Now the government has called this an unfair practice. Parking enforcement in Oakland has headed down the same trail. The $55 expired meter ticket charge is too high and it is applied arbitrarily. Some cars' tires are mark while others' car is ticketed. Some people are given a grace time of a few minutes while others are left standing watching the car being ticketed after being 2 minutes. Recently the assembly line ticketing was so aggressive (multiple parking enforcers on same block at the same time) I asked the shop owners to tell the officers that I just pulled in and was running to the pay station to get a coupon. They laughed and asked which car.
I think one reason the City of Oakland gets away with the aggressive parking enforcement and high-rate strategy is that it (at present) legally can. The law should be changed, or at the very least some kind of Oakland measure be structured (it would win an election vote), to prevent the City from charging parking fines over the legal California usery rate of 10 percent interest.
The City's unemployment rate was estimated to be 17.5 percent as of August 2009 according to Oakland's own economic development department. That means one out of every five people in Oakland is jobless. And with that comes crime.
As I write this in a cafe in Oakland, the police are outside writing a report because a woman was just mugged over on Broadway. Earlier today I saw a window of a car smashed in near Euclid Avenue. Two days ago a downtown Oakland salon was vandalized on Washington Street; I made a video of the shattered glass and talked to the business owner.
This city's getting more and more dangerous and the City of Oakland's acting more like one of the muggers, taking money from its citizens who need it more than the City. This has got to stop.
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