Show Public T Transportation tans an Strikes es 7 1 A. A gain i W J s 0 0 0 4 I i. i h 0 i W 7 1 w sj v o. o r I woke up one morning last week and hurriedly ran from my humble basement apartment out to tomy tomy tomy my car on my way to school I was stopped suddenly as a small slip of paper on n my windshield caught my eye Sure enough I had yet another parking ticket This This' was was' the third ticket Id I'd had in the last six months This time unlike other times I didn't really know why I should have a ticket The other other- times I knew exactly why I got that ticket Once was for an expired parking meter the other for parking parking parking park park- ing in a no parking zone But this time it would be different To my astonishment I had received my ticket because I didn't h have ve a resident resident resident resi resi- dent parking permit Well EXCUSE EXCUSE EXCUSE EX- EX CUSE me The Way It I Is IsBy s N Fw p By Dan Metcalf There was also an accompanying accompany accompany- ing notice with this ticket stating that my car would be towed away within 24 hours and that all of this fuss was because one of my friendly friend friend- ly neighbors had complained about my car being parked on our street In other words someone thought that my dirty little 1979 Dodge Aspen clashed with all the sparkling sparkling sparkling ing new Saabs and that dot the driveways of our wealthy little neighborhood near the U of U. U 1 A. A fl l 0 J r r r 1 As you might have guessed I didn't take this sort of thing lying down As soon as I could I called the phone number on the parking notice and demanded to speak to some authority at the Public Transportation division of the SL Police Department I was transferred transfer transfer- red from one place to another for about five minutes but soon thereafter a somewhat intelligent voice came over the other end Can I help you I explained my predicament and told him what I thought of the whole situation and that I refused to pay pay for parking i in front front be my myown own home He then informed me meto meto meto to take my problem to the city hearing officer and see what they could do Well I went to the City Building on State Street prepared to do battle with the hearing officer over a fifteen dollar parking ticket Little did I know that the hearing officer was very prepared to do battle with me First I must mention mention mention men men- tion to all of you that before you go godown godown godown down to dispute a ticket you had better be sure that you have a ticket and not three tickets because they will not let you talk to the hearing officer until they pull your record up on their computer After they did pull my record up complete with all my other tickets I walked in and sat down at the desk of an officer with a very cold stare the problem she ask ask- ed Well I got this ticket and I dont don't think I deserve it because I live on that street and people who live on that street shouldn't have to You shouldn't park there without a permit They have that law because too many university students try to park there But Im I'm not a student at the U. U I just live there I shouldn't have to pay Then you should get a resident permit This kind of banter went on for about ten more minutes until the officer was frustrated enough to reduce the ticket to ten dollars if I could prove I had a permit I told her that I would park in my driveway from now on and that I didn't need a permit FINE she said as she scribbled ed the reduction on the ticket Just pay the ten dollars and leave This whole experience was just the kind of thing that makes my skin crawl I saw the whole bureau bureaucratic take place I Iwas I. I was involved in a dispute that took tooka a lot of energy and time just to save myself a lousy five bucks Was it worth it Its It's really hard to tell because while I was arguing over this one ticket the good people at atthe atthe atthe the City Building made me pay for all the other tickets I had at the same time not to mention the money I had to put in the meter on State Street My suggestion to the city is to abolish all parking meters and parking permits Then we the taxpayers taxpayers taxpayers tax tax- payers wouldn't be paying for all those obnoxious city employees |