Michael We have often described the catastrophic parking conditions in our neighborhood, but recently the situation has worsened. To make matters worse, there is now also the residential parking zone "Z," which is marked by appropriate traffic signs. Within this zone, you are only allowed to park for 2 hours on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. if you do not have the corresponding permit on your car.
This badge is only given to those who live on the respective street. Now, our place is on 24th Street, where there is no parking zone, only parking meters, and we don't get a badge and are screwed. We have to search for spots in the few remaining side streets without parking zones until we're blue in the face! Initially, only a few streets had the new regulation, but more and more residents couldn't find a parking spot because of the change and submitted petitions to have their street included in the nonsense as well.
We now have two cars, the old Perlman and the new rocket (Rundbrief 02/2008). The rocket is in the garage, Perlman has to spend the night on the street. But that also means that we're busy playing the old parking games again (Rundbrief 07/2001). Once a week, the street sweeper comes to our neighborhood, and then Perlman has to be moved, otherwise there will be a parking ticket that costs $40.
However, residents are reluctant to give up a good parking spot, and many just drive off briefly, let the street sweeper pass, and then immediately squeeze back into the old spot. What tourists don't know, and locals are reluctant to reveal: Even if the traffic sign (illustration 1) states that the street sweeper passes through on Tuesday between 12 and 2 PM, you can still park there during that time frame after the street sweeper has done its work.
Through years of time-consuming studies, I have discovered that the street sweeper on 23rd Street, where street cleaning according to the traffic sign takes place on Tuesdays between 12 and 2 PM, passes by almost exactly at 12:25. I assume that the street sweeper follows a set schedule, which is established somewhere in the secret archives of the city of San Francisco, and which he must read, memorize, and then eat.
| Video: Documentary video: The street sweeper is coming to our area. |
Minutes before the street sweeper comes by, an armada of what I call "parking ticket wasps" (Rundbrief 07/2001) are scurrying the area Before the street sweeper, what I call wasps drive (Rundbrief 07/2001) to distribute parking tickets to those cars that are still parked there. (By the way, the official name of these cute three-wheelers, whose drivers wear bicycle helmets, is "Interceptor".) Now, the trick is to move your parked car around 12:15, keep lurking nearby, and as soon as the street sweeper passes through at 12:26, reclaim the old parking spot.
Since I always work from home on Tuesdays, I quickly leave the house at noon, get the car, and repark it. Recently, I even shot a documentary video (see above).
Overregulation of this kind is sprouting up in San Francisco like mushrooms. The former city of revolutionaries has become a home for prematurely aged people in their late thirties who have nothing better to do than sit in their million-dollar homes, count their money, and start neighborhood initiatives when there are no parking spaces. Recently, we had parked the Perlman on Jersey Street in our neighborhood for almost a week, and technically, you're not allowed to do that due to a relatively unknown and absurd regulation: the maximum parking duration is 72 hours, after which you have to move the car at least one block away. No one really adheres to this, but sure enough, some desk jockey from Jersey Street stuck a note on our car and accused us with harsh words (see illustration 2). What an idiot!
Another source of complaints seems to be the company Google picking up its employees by shuttle in San Francisco. These buses are rumbling through the quiet streets at night, and there was an immediate outcry! In illustration 3, you can see the corresponding article in the neighborhood newspaper 'Noe Valley Voice'. The headline, by the way, features the rarely used verb "to rankle." Look it up in the dictionary to see what it means. Among cool people, there is once again a tendency to move to the South American neighborhood "Mission" or even to quite run-down areas like Hunters Point (Rundbrief 02/2008) to escape the wannabe alternatives in our neighborhood.