Wow. You'd think this was the most important problem in the world today, based on the huge number of responses. Good grief. No wonder we're in trouble.

The City's bureaucracy has become so big that they pretty much determine the elections; so the elected Supes can't touch the bureaucracy. I complained to my Supe about the MUNI, and he just wrote back saying he can't do anything. The Supes are in the pockets of the unions. The unions will keep demanding more money, and the City will keep figuring out ways to generate more revenue (instead of cutting back on the bureaucracy).

Secondly: many City employees have handicap placards. Just tour the blocks around City Hall on a weekday morning. You'll be surprised to see how many able-bodied people park at the meters, put up the blue placard and saunter over to work at City Hall.

i figured i'd contribute my worst parking story.

one time, i was looking for a parking spot when my block was particularly crowded, and the only spot left was on the curved part of the curb in an oblique intersection. it wasn't perfectly perpendicular, so i couldn't easily tell where the intersection started and ended. conveniently, a meter maid pulled up and i asked her, "is it legal for me to park there? is that in an intersection?" and she said no! go ahead, park there!

and guess what? the bitch turned around as soon as i walked away from my car and gave me a ticket. they say they're "good people doing a hard job" but sometimes, i beg to differ.

Did the HAZMAT story down below actually happen?

Right on Anonymous Poster! You did your research!

“25,000 city employees, plus their benefits, 10,000 more in City funded non-profits and the 10,000 retirees. (San Jose with the same population has 8,000). More fees, more fines, more taxes and it'll still never be enough.”

Now here’s one for your morning that’ll get you going:
Picture it, SF 2012 – Homeless guy takes a crap in a SOMA ally; City gets a call on it’s 311 HOTLINE, an hour or so later several
guys arrive in a van wearing HAZMAT suits to clean it up. So jezzz askin’ how much did this SHIT COST taxpayers?

Let’s hear a big raspberry cheer for our SOCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX collection agency on three wheels… aka SF MTA.

Now how about a bicycle tax for taking lanes away from City streets and further congesting traffic?

There are more than enough legit cars to tow and ticket, it's the invalid erroneous ticketing and towing that seem to be out of nothing but sheer laziness on the part of the parking squad.

Here's another one... My own car was towed from my own driveway. I didn't call DPT. Every time I've asked for a block driveway tow, I've had to open my garage door to parking enforcement officer and show them I had a blocked car. City corruption at it's finest. That tow cost me $400.00.

Here's another one... My own car was towed from my own driveway. I didn't call DPT. Every time I've asked for a block driveway tow, I've had to open my garage door to parking enforcement officer and show them I had a blocked car. City corruption at it's finest. That tow cost me $400.00.

The SFMTA DPT Parking Enforcement Program is one that could greatly benefit from some sensitivity and integrity training. At $2 Million per week I think they could take some of that money and heighten the awareness of many of the parking police. Inefficiency and lack of integrity is what breeds the contempt.

Too bad the city does nothing to stop meter maids from parking in empty meter spaces for hours at a time and when questioned, say, "I don't care!" i.e. cart #158M759 @ meter 56304160 for 3 hours on Thursday! Her inconsideration caused this handicapped man with a court appointment to walk 2 extra blocks to the courthouse when 100' is painful enough. This insolent creep should be canned!

I have an idea that is fair, and increases revenue!If people paid their fine as a percentage of their income...it would be more fair. Why should a part-time sales clerk have to pay as much as a 14%????
when they roll thru a stopsign.,....

I got a $50 ticket for parking on the painted T that outlines each parking space on some business streets! Ridiculous.

I gave up my car years ago because I was tired of getting tickets, but it still doesn't stop. Whenever I rent a car, and need to park overnight in MY neighborhood, invariably I wake up with a NEIGHBORHOOD ticket on my dashboard, the very type of ticket deisgned to protect ME, THE NEIGHBOR! Whenever I suggested to DP&T that this is unfair,because the rental cars of course don't have neighborhood stickers, they tell me "you can always go down to DP&T and buy a temporary permit." Really" REALLY!! I rent a car fro 24 hours, I have no idea what the license plate of my rented car will be, and I'm supposed to spend my day going down to DP&T to purchase a weekly permit once I have RENTED the car? FOR ONE DAY?!?!? I call B.S.- they should have portable permits issued to residents who don't own cars BUT still rent them. After all, these neighborhood restrictions are designed to PROTECT me, not PENALIZE me. And by not owning a car and clogging up the streets every night, I'm actually HELPING the neighborhood. AARRGHH!

This comment from down below wins the best idea in a long time:

So if a bus zone violation is $255, and a bus takes up about three times as much room as a car, I propose that any Muni driver that doesn't use the bus zone should get fined $765. Buses hanging their asses out into both lanes are responsible for more traffic backups than just about anything. Fair's fair, right?

Many years ago my friends and I ran the Bay To Breakers. We had the bright idea to drop off his van down by the end of the park. We weren't the only ones who parked there on Sat. evening. Sometime in the middle of the night however they put no parking signs werte we and about 50 other people parked.

We finished the run and went to our vehicle only to find everyone who parked there was towed. Next day at the hall of justice (this was before they made parking separate from the police) It was pandemonium with everyone complaining about what happened!

I drive around and never get any tickets? Why? I always keep coins for the meters, I pay attention to the signs and I have a small calendar in the car because of this new stupid street cleaning rule such as "third thursday following a tuesday except on a monday" you may have seen these new tricky signs.
I live on a street with friday noon cleaning. I cannot drive elsewhere easily because my street is a split level raceway (market st.) so I pull the car up on the sidewalk and sit in it. I do this so that the meter people and the cleaning truck can whiz by. I feel if I was not in the car behind the wheel I would get a sidewalk ticket. It takes only a few minutes and then I'm back in the street in front of my driveway.
I feel sorry for people who get tickets. Its often not a case of thumbing your nose at the law, its a problem that cannot be solved due to the large number of cars. but the revenue is about 100 million dollars and if you think the city will ever give this up or reduce the fines, let me advise you to buy the golden gate bridge (I have the listing) and you can have and be your own toll collector. This is the thanks from the economic parasites we send to city hall.
I relish stories about meter people getting slugged from time to time.

I worked for a computer company back in the 80's and had a company car.
The car was part of a fleet vehicle lease for the San Francisco office ,but was transferred over to the Almeda branch.

I went to renew the registration at the DMV and was surprised to see it had over $2600 in parking fines (and this was back in the 80's).

San Francisco is a state of mind with it's hands in your pockets.

I can't hardly wait till they start to ticket the chauvinistic do gooders on bikes(and it's coming).

Welcome to the club!

Here's another good ticket story for you. Years back I worked in the heart of the Tenderloin for a local social service agency. I worked the evening shift which ended at 11pm. One evening I left work to find that my car was part of a homicide investigations. The murderer had left his gun on the hood of my car. My car was taped off and I wasn't allowed anywhere near it. So I asked an officer to drive me home. He did and assured me that my car would be fine and that he would see to it I wouldn't get a parking ticket. Ah, right. Got a ticket anyway.

You should do a story on what it's like to protest a ticket with the SFMTA. I recently received a transit violation from the SFMTA in my name. Only it wasn't me. I knew the culprit (a relative who panicked and gave my name and address). Her and her boyfriend both received $100.00 tickets for fare skipping. Only I got the bill. When I contested it and pointed out that the boyfriend, who listed my address, didn't not live at my address, they put his ticket in my name too. I went down to their office to ask for a hearing. They charge you $100.00 per ticket that you are contesting. So I had to pay the SFMTA $200.00 to provide them with the evidence that they along with my relative stole my identity. Luckily my relative stepped up and her and her boyfriend came along to confess. After arguing a bit with his supervisor, he decided that the tickets couldn't be dismissed and I almost didn't get my $200.00 back. The hearing officer told me he would transfer the tickets into their name. He finally agreed to back out the charge and transfer the tickets into the offending parties names. That was January 21st. On February 23rd, I received the same ticket, in my name with an increased amount of #25.00. So no it says I owe $125.00. I went back to the transit authority, spoke to the same hearing officer who lectured me on how the relative should do project 20. What's up with the SFMTA scamming the public. I KNOW I'm not the only one this happens to. And what's up with charging the public so much money for a fair hearing?

So if a bus zone violation is $255, and a bus takes up about three times as much room as a car, I propose that any Muni driver that doesn't use the bus zone should get fined $765. Buses hanging their asses out into both lanes are responsible for more traffic backups than just about anything. Fair's fair, right?

25,000 city employees, plus their benefits, 10,000 more in City funded non-profits and the 10,000 retirees. (San Jose with the same population has 8,000). More fees, more fines, more taxes and it'll still never be enough.

Hi everyone, My wife and I just got a $935 dollar ticket for popping into Happy donuts at 24 and Church at 8:30 in the morning going to work by parking in a blue zone. It used to be a ten minute zone but now two spots are both. Nothing was put on the windshield and no cushman was present as we were within 15 feet of our vehicle and would see it. A letter from the SMTA say that we have" failed to respond" but have received no notice until this one. Blue zone tickets were $275-325..now they are three times more? Is this legal? Why not $10,000? Any advise would be appreciated. And while we are on it..on any given day on Geary in the Richmond you will often find 1/3 to 1/2 the cars parked on a block with Disabled placard on them. The other day near walgreens/blockbuster (or whatever they are called now) I counted 7 placards for 15 car. We are evidently really disabled or abusing the system in San Francisco. Any thought?

Phil

What about everyone just being smarter and more diligent, and doing your damnedest not to get a ticket again.

Don't move to Bernal Heights! There is a witch that lives in BH that will harrass you with calling on your car to DPT to issue your auto a ticket each and every week! Because she is a vile human being...I'm not kidding!

You are referring to the KTVU special report:
http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/wrongly-issued-tickets-could-cost-sf-milli...

It was done because of what I had reported to KTVU where in PCOs were not writing down VINs on tickets.

They are now 'attempting' to get smarter. I recently got copies of the PCO Training Bulletins. Now, they are telling PCOs to write down "cannot read", "unable to locate", or "covered" on citations.

Like I said, when a PCO writes 85 tickets and 84 of them says "cannot read", it is utterly suspicious. That is exactly what I fought and won at the SF Traffic Bureau.

But you need to make sure you get your information ASAP by requesting the documents through SFMTA Sunshine Department. My blog will tell you how to do that.

Do NOT pay your street cleaning ticket quickly and do NOT admit to anything! If you have time...request for documents first (just make sure you do not pass the deadline).

The more people request SFMTA for such documents, they will realize that more and more people are knowing that their PCOs are not doing their jobs!

SF Parking Warrior
http://www.sfparkingwarrior.blogspot.com

The lazy parking control officers, were to lazy to get off there cushman scooter seats and read the vin # so u can beat any parking ticket issued in sf, if the ticket says cannot read vin, it a lie. if u already paid the fine, I would go tom traffic court and fight it........this info was in the news last year, then as usually disappeared.

My wife got a parking ticket for a car that was not hers. When went to the dealership that actually registered our car and found out that our plate was on a different car and the plate on our car was from that car. She had a silver Mazda 3 and the car ticketed was a red Mazda 3. We wrote to the SF Parking Auth. and they didnt even flinch. So we went to the dealer and had them call but the parking Authority said just send in the declaration. So we did with a nice signed letter from the dealership. Guess what they still did not do a thing and said that the ticket must be paid in full or it will double. We paid and gave up the fight. Needless to say we dont go to SF that much because it sucks. You can get a ticket in the mail for someone elses car. If the parking nazis checked the vin number they could have easily resolved this issue. What a bunch of leeches.

I worked in the City for about 6 months from 8:00 pm to 5:00 am installing fiber optic cable in the underground system throughout the downtown area. I was lucky but budgeted at least $250/mo. for tickets from the parking police. They came out of nowhere at midnight (like a band of little locusts on Kushmans) ahead of the street sweepers. If you began work at 8:00 pm Monday you had to remember that 4 hours later it was Tuesday and you would get a ticket for parking. You had to move your vehicle to the other side of the street. I got a ticket for obstructing a bus zone where nothing was marked, painted, or identified at 3:40 am even though we had not even seen a bus for more than 3 hours. The guy didn't give me the ticket - he told me to move and I did. About 8 months later I got a notice telling me not to ignore my ticket and pay it immediately or it would double. First I ever heard of it - the guy on the Kushman cited me without getting of his scooter and without giving me the ticket. Oh well.

The BIGGER question is: is each and every single citation legally valid?

I have been requesting documents from SFMTA for over a year. And, in fact, have been able to contest and win two of my tickets (because it was incomplete and in violation of CVC 40202a).

Here's an example:
On 12/05/11, Officer LS (Badge #238) wrote 85 street cleaning citations. This means that he generated almost $5000 for SMFTA just for that one day.

Out of 85 citations, SFMTA confirmed that Officer LS indicated "cannot read" the vehicle identification numbers (VIN) of the 84 vehicles.

In other words, either 84 car owners truly have their VINs covered or the city has the lousiest vision plan there is in the country.

I have other proofs that SFMTA has allowed other parking citation officers to write "cannot read", "covered", or "unable to read" on citations and not verifying each and every single month!

California Vehicle Code (CVC) 40202(a) clearly states that: "....notice of violation shall also set forth...the VIN if it is readable through the window..."

It is time for SF vehicle owners to fight SFMTA!!! If we are expected to follow the rules, we expect SFMTA and its citation officers to follow the rules, too!

Check out my blog at: http://www.sfparkingwarrior.blogspot.com

I've been job hunting but there are certain thing morally I cannot do. Poach animals, make crack or being a parking ticket writer are the first three that come to mind.

Think how quickly municipal governments would collapse if parking violations and other misdemeanors suddenly ended---there's no wish whatsoever for these activities to cease.....

A Bald faced shakedown against the people they serve.

How about this?
1. A warning for the first offense,
2. $10 maximum fine for repeat offense.

They could easily balance the budget of this city if they only ticketed the idiots that constantly double park up and down San Bruno Ave and the side streets that merge into it. It's like a third world country driving down that street with the disregard that the drivers have for those around them.

I can't believe how big these numbers are ! ... What do they do with the money ?!?

how anyone can derive ANY satisfaction to the amount of money taken from the people that live in this city by these mother fuckers is beyond me.

I know the city doesn't have enough money, but the people that get issued tickets don't either. For some a single ticket can mean the difference between getting by that month, or not.

this city and its ticket issuing is out of control.

How much do they make from residential parking when they charge $100 for a permit which is equivalent to 2 parking fines. Fines alone are 11 million and then the revenue from permits.
Absolute scam, especially the street cleaning.
NOTE: North Beach residents voted not to have street cleaning anymore as they were fed up with all the ticketing.

Also check out www.parkplease.com. Discover new parking spots from your community and save money and time along the way!