Ticket to the Future
So, this weekend The Lady and I were down at Belmont Brew Co. enjoying a delicious beer after a day of errands (she had the Marathon, I had the Oktoberfest). Well, we parked in the adjacent (you know, the one in front of those moldy-ass ocean-view condos) and failed to see the payment machine on the other side of the lot. Who knows what we were thinking, but for whatever reason we didn't think it strange that there were no meters.
Anyhow, after we left BBC we discovered a crisp, neatly packaged parking ticket under The Lady's windshield wiper. Oh well, we had a brain fart and we'll pay the price.
I opened it up to see:
"Time limit exceeded. Fine: $46."
Forty six fucking dollars for a half an hour of parking?
WTF?!
That shit is outrageous!
And today while driving on Harbor in Costa Mesa, I saw a motorcycle cop pulling over an Escalade. My first thought was, "Bummer for that dude. Wonder what he did."
After running a few errands (I know. More errands. I've been traveling a lot which means a grip of errands when I'm actually home) I headed down Harbor in the opposite direction. Lo and behold there was another motorcycle cop driving down the street.
And the only reason I know it wasn't the same officer is because that dude was on the other side of the street pulling over a Buick now! So you basically have at least two motorcycle cops doing hot laps on Harbor all day issuing tickets to as many drivers as possible.
I no longer had to wonder what the guy in Caddy did to get pulled over because it didn't matter. That poor son of a bitch was getting a ticket no matter what.
Because with tax receipts hitting all-time lows, cities have no other source of revenue.
So expect fines for minor street sweeping tickets to become outrageous, more speed traps, more chickenshit fees, more utility surcharges, more cash cow red-light cameras, and more motorcycle cops assigned to busy thoroughfares for no other purpose than writing tickets. Don't worry, taxes will eventually be hiked too (the sales tax already went up to close to 10%) to pay for budget and tax receipt shortfalls, but for now I would prepare for more attempts to bilk taxpayers for hard earned cash that they already have less of these days.
Anyhow, after we left BBC we discovered a crisp, neatly packaged parking ticket under The Lady's windshield wiper. Oh well, we had a brain fart and we'll pay the price.
I opened it up to see:
"Time limit exceeded. Fine: $46."
Forty six fucking dollars for a half an hour of parking?
WTF?!
That shit is outrageous!
And today while driving on Harbor in Costa Mesa, I saw a motorcycle cop pulling over an Escalade. My first thought was, "Bummer for that dude. Wonder what he did."
After running a few errands (I know. More errands. I've been traveling a lot which means a grip of errands when I'm actually home) I headed down Harbor in the opposite direction. Lo and behold there was another motorcycle cop driving down the street.
And the only reason I know it wasn't the same officer is because that dude was on the other side of the street pulling over a Buick now! So you basically have at least two motorcycle cops doing hot laps on Harbor all day issuing tickets to as many drivers as possible.
I no longer had to wonder what the guy in Caddy did to get pulled over because it didn't matter. That poor son of a bitch was getting a ticket no matter what.
Because with tax receipts hitting all-time lows, cities have no other source of revenue.
So expect fines for minor street sweeping tickets to become outrageous, more speed traps, more chickenshit fees, more utility surcharges, more cash cow red-light cameras, and more motorcycle cops assigned to busy thoroughfares for no other purpose than writing tickets. Don't worry, taxes will eventually be hiked too (the sales tax already went up to close to 10%) to pay for budget and tax receipt shortfalls, but for now I would prepare for more attempts to bilk taxpayers for hard earned cash that they already have less of these days.
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