Parking issues retold. Part 1.

The 600 block of N Water Street is a busy place during the day. Not so busy at night except on Friday and Saturday late, when the weird club is open. The city in its wisdom has seen fit, for as long as I've been working downtown, to forbid parking between 3:30 and 5:30 pm so the street is clear for rush hour (as if we have any) traffic. In theory, though unnecessary, this is fine. But in practice it is not workable nor fair.

I have worked downtown for more than 30 years. For the last 25 or so I have had a window office on the second floor that faces the corner of Water and Wisconsin. Somehow, and what seems like suddenly, though in fact it's been several years, the parking checkers have multiplied like rabbits, or maybe lice is a better word. One day it just dawned on me that we had a much larger force and they were vicious about their job. If you park downtown and your meter expires, you WILL have a parking ticket. And if you come out in the course of the ticket being written, you have no chance of talking him or her out of it.

Hoping for a little magic or at least mischief

It is unclear what these elves were doing parking on Water Street but my hope is that they were up to no good vis a vis the parking checkers. Whatever they were doing they were also picketing for employment. Things must be getting rough at the North Pole what with all the global warming and such.

Sleeping on the job.

This morning on the way to work I drove past (and hastily took a picture) of Meter reader, car 56 taking a snooze on the clock. Not only was she sleeping on the job, she was taking up a parking space in an area of valuable spaces.

Lickin' his chops

Not a car parked illegally, not even one in sight. So you'd think that the rush hour traffic could just breeze through. Instead, this towing service is just in the way waiting for some unknowing victim to park. After that he'll have to wait for the meter reader finally come and give the ticket so he can tow the car.

Good deed do-er

These folks were going to park their car at 4 pm. Fortunately for them, one of my co-workers, Javier, was crossing the street to go to the gym where he is working on extra cardio to lose weight in a bet he has going with Dave, but that's another story. He walked past them, then came back and told them that they couldn't park there (he's partially hidden by the light pole), saving them the $50 ticket and the possible $150 towing charge. I was pleased to know I work with such compassionate people.

Prominent attorney reads sign

In a display of unexpected intelligence, a local attorney actually read the sign after he tried to park his shiny silver jag after 3:30 and the meter wouldn't take his coin. He left. Too bad for his pouting girlfriend who was waiting impatiently for him.

The Getaway

Yet another example of the city keeping the streets clear. Here the tow truck sits waiting for the meter reader to come and give the car a ticket (you can see in the first picture that there is no ticket on the car) so he can tow it. Oddly, the meter reader, of which there are generally 2 or 3 thousand hovering on the block, was nowhere in sight and the truck patiently waited for 20 minutes (blocking traffic the entire time), so long that the owner of the car, who was in violation of city ordinance for over 20 minutes came out, frantically got in his car, drove off and got away scott free. The middle picture is the evil tow truck driver.