Dear Parking Guru,
 
This morning I found not one, not two, but three parking tickets on my windshield, and I am beside myself with frustration. On Sunday night, my boyfriend and I parked our car a couple of blocks away from where we live in the Richmond. The only restriction is for street sweeping on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month. It was the 4th week when we parked, so we thought we were good. I went back to my car on Friday (five days later), and there were three tickets for a residential parking violation. After looking down to pick up the crumpled tickets, I looked up and saw a freshly installed 2-Hour (from 9am-6pm) parking sign. It was put up sometime after we parked the car there.

If necessity is the mother of invention, then desperation might be the mother of devious creativity.  As many people continue to struggle economically, I've been receiving a lot of email about erroneous tickets. This is indicating to me that either the rate of drinking on the job for DPT officers has skyrocketed, or three old school parking scams have reared their heads once again in our fair city and across the nation.   

Scam #1...

Here's a brain tickler for this ultra gloomy, Juneuary Friday. Just take a look at the pictures above and attempt to answer this question:

Dear Parking Guru,
 
I live in Potrero on a street where parking is perpendicular to the curb.  People don't space their cars close enough to each other and end up wasting a lot of potential parking space! Why do people do this? Is it possible to ask the City to paint lane markings on the street to help these inconsiderate or careless folks park more snugly? Or can we do it ourselves??  We would all reap the benefit!
 
Sincerely Yours,
Mr. Space Saver