Sunday, December 4, 2016

It Always Amazes Me




Yesterday the city sent an army of men and giant machinery to remove the fallen leaves from my street. What a wonderful parade I pay property tax for.
What amazes me is every year around this time, the city in preparation of this parade sends scouts to signal the day of the activity with signs tied to trees along the parade path. Each sign reads “Do Not Park Here between the hours of 8 AM and 4 PM Friday December 2, 2016 or your vehicle will be towed by the authorization of the city” There are no exceptions.
As the dawn breaks before the bright yellow vested blowers and scrapers and washers and vacuums, there will be a police car followed by a line of long bed tow trucks. One by one each truck is filled with one or two cars and another takes the lead. Cars that look fairly new and somewhat expensive are hauled to impound so people can call and retrieve for a fee.
This may be some kind of game of hide and seek but it happens every year. No matter the excuses if a car or truck or even a trailer is parked, during the hours of 8 AM to 4 PM on Friday, it will be towed.
What I am amazed with is the regularity of this game. Snow removal, street cleaning, plumbing repairs and any other cause that is needed to allow city workers space to perform their task signs are posted. If the spelling is too hard to understand, there are children who are walked to a school close by who should be able to comprehend the words and relay to their parents the message. Should the signs be made politically correct with translations into different languages to show the diversity of the neighborhood?
Well the clean street was packed again with automobiles tonight so I guess they got them back. I am easily entertained.

1 comment:

TripleG said...

There are lots of old neighborhoods with absolutely no parking. I guess if you live in the Museum District, you'd have to drive to Willow Lawn, park, and walk home, then go retrieve your car. I'd like to know why they still grant advanced degrees in urban planning when no one has solved this problem yet.