Open Letter to the Mayor

Dear Mayor,

As you know, the city council recently approved an overnight parking ordinance in our neighborhood. The caveat was that we would have to pay $15 per permit to park on the street at night. (The money was to pay for the program. I have it on a fairly good source that there won't be any new employees hired to hand out tickets, it will just be left to the overnight shift officers, who will find anything else to do but hand out tickets at night. I consider the $30 a year charge for street parking to be an extra tax by the city just for living in the neighborhood. Kind of like the "tax" I will have to pay when my kids have to start rents school books. What would the school district say when I pass on the book rental?) I remind you this all came up because the city is unable to enforce the housing code in any way at all, and this is not a solution to the problem just East of just, it's just a way to allow our neighbors to use their streets and yards.

The ordinance was to take effect January 1, the signs the city put up are very conspicuous. I'm glad you decided to move the signs to the property lines instead of in front of our houses. That saved me the effort of having to pull the sign out of the ground and return it to the city. "You lost this." was going to be my response as I brought it back.

I sent my application for permits with my check for $30 several weeks ago. Last week, the check cleared the bank, but I have yet to receive my parking tag. Are the parking tags coming? It's very inconvenient to park 2 vehicles in the drive when there is all that space on the street I could be using. If you are going to steal from us (My $30 check was cashed.), you could at least set us a card or something thanking us.

So, is enforcement going to start? Will I get my parking tags? The signs are nice, but they are nothing more than an eyesore if nothing else happens. I could put up a "Beware of Dog" sign up on the fence in our backyard, but it's not going to keep the quail out of the yard in the spring...

We await your response.