Hi David,
 
I'm following up on our email exchange from February about a ticket issued by SFMTA to my girlfriend for "over 3% grade."  Thank you so much for your help so far. We used your parking resources link. And clicked on the surveyed streets of San Francisco and found that the grade of the street in question in fact is only 1.75%.
 
My girlfriend contested the ticket, on time, sending in a copy of the SF DPW subdivision map which clearly shows a grade of 1.75% for the block in question (Potrero Ave, between 17th/Mariposa), and a letter explaining why the ticket should be reversed.
 
The response from the SFMTA was as follows: "After reviewing your protest, the department has determined that: our records indicate the grade at the location on the citation is in excess of 3%. The circumstances you presented in your protest were insufficient to overcome the validity of the citation. The review has confirmed that the citation was properly issued and is valid."
 
The next step of protest was to request an administrative hearing. The hearing official heard my girlfriend's argument, looked at the DPW maps we printed out, and told my girlfriend she couldn't decide the case on the spot and would have to go look at her records and get back to us.
 
Even if, in the best case, this was a SFMTA clerical error, how can these meter maids be giving out so many bogus tickets on this block? Our experience seems to show that it's very unlikely that any correction to their lack of knowledge will be made. Their lack of knowledge makes SFMTA money, so it's in their best interest to not educate them with trivial things like the law. 
 
Is the City abusing its power, using unethical corporate tactics, giving out bogus tickets and then dumping them into administrative hearings, hoping we will just pay the ticket rather than go through the hassle? If only we could publicly aggregate complaints.
 
Sincerely,
 
Feeling Angry At My City Government

Muni's budget was reported as being balanced last Thursday.  The question now is what will happen with all of the surplus money. No, just kidding. That's just an early April Fool's Day warm-up joke. Muni's budget has as much chance of being balanced, or running at a surplus as do most of our own personal budgets. Muni is facing a $53.2 million budget deficit over the next 2 years ($19.6 million in 2013 and $33.6 million in 2014), and in order to try to slow down the bleeding, SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin has proposed some changes.  Here are some of the highlights:
 
12 SFMTA Managerial Positions Cut

Here's a good old-fashioned parking quiz for this sunny Friday. You park in a spot with a sign posted that says, 2-Hour Limit, Monday through Friday,  9 am to 7 pm.  It's 9 am.  You move your car at 11 am to another block. When are you safe to park on the original block again without fear of getting a ticket?

Last week's story seemed to strike a nerve or two, which generated a lot of first amendment activity in the comments section. I found alot of them to be smart, funny, and insightful. So much so that I thought I'd share some of the highlights with you this week. Without further ado, here are your fellow readers' recent freedoms of expression about parking: