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glb1976

Guest
A while back, after starting a new job, I parked where a sign was missing. I was new to the area, and simply found a lucky spot and parked. When I returned, I had a series of parking tickets for parking in a one hour zone. I then noticed that the sign overlooking my space was missing, due to some light sidewalk construction. This was on the corner, and therefore the last visible sign on the block. The signs 'behind' my vehicle were attached to thick cement blocks and facing the opposite direction, and therefore completely invisible to my space. The curbs were all unmarked as well. I then disputed the tickets and didn't think again of it until my registration was due, at which point I learned that the appeals were denied, and that furthermore, the denials were sent to the wrong address, and also had tripled. Although the registered owner, my roommate (from whom I'm purchasing the car), had changed his address upon buying a new car, he failed to change the address for the other vehicle. FYI, on the California DMV website, it specifically states that drivers must change addresses, not 'vehicles'. The fee was now several hundred dollars.

I then contacted parking management and informed them of the mistake. After explaining that the sign was missing, I figured the matter should have been closed, right? Wrong, they then informed me that I then had to prove that the sign was missing. My registration was going to be due in a few weeks, and I couldn't register the vehilcle w/o removing the liens now on the vehicle. I was then told that although it was the cities error for not having a sign appropriately posted, it was my responsibility to prove that the sign was missing. I then spent weeks dealing with a countless number of beauracrats in attempts to track down the appropriate individual with information regarding the missing sign. Several months later, I finally recieved a letter from City Engineering stating that sign overlooking the cited space wasn't installed until over one month after the cited date. I then had this letter forwared to city management. By this time, although I had paid my registration, I hadn't recieved my stickers, and had recieved no less then six reg tickets. Each one was either paid, or disputed. During the entire process, one ticket ended up getting lost somewhere, and has now tripled in price. After recieving the letter from engineering, the director of Parking Management, who was now involved in the ongoing matter, went down to investigate the scene. He then declared that since I 'drove past other signs before parking' that the tickets were valid. EXCUSE ME, MR. DIRECTOR OF PARKING MANAGEMENT: I'm sorry if I wasn't looking at the side of the road for parking signs before I decided to park. Maybe I was keeping my eyes on the road to keep from hitting other cars. Or what about pedestrians, you stupid ignoramous? Maybe I checked for a sign when I saw the parking space. Maybe considering that the sign was missing, it shouldn't matter whether I saw unviewable signs or not, maybe you should keep your mouth shut and remove the tickets. In fact maybe I shouldn't have had to go through any of these months of aggravation, since it was the cities error for not having a temporary sign posted in the first place. Maybe you, being a representative of the city of San Diego should show just a smigeon of professionalism and courtesy and immediately conduct an investigation upon the report of a missing sign. Not put, me, a law abiding citizen through an absolute nightmare for over a year, and then cap it off by bombarding me with your utter ignorance of the dynamics of traffic and the distribution of the driver's attention. With complete idiots like you being appointed as director of parking management, I'm surprised ther hasn't been an increased number of pedestrian deaths on the road. After all, under your jurisdiction, all drivers have to constantly be on the lookout for a potentially missing sign. I mean, who cares if they hit a pedestrian in the meantime!

As, of now, I've just been informed by city collections, that I have to pay the sum in full for all citations, and that they are "not going to do anything else for me on the matter".

I have been an excellent citizen all of my life, and I have never been in an accident. I follow the laws, and I don't take chances with traffic laws. In my entire life, I cannot remember being more frustrated or stressed out then while dealing with San Diego Parking Management. After getting to know my case, on several occasions, they gave me false information, and failed to give me proper information for filing a complaint with the city. They treated me with disrespect and maintained the "just pay it" attitude throughout the entire affair, even though the fine exceeded several hundred dollars. Quite simply, they treated the entire issue as if it were a game, and as if they gave in, it meant that they were 'beaten'. Because of this standpoint, I believe they lost site of the essentials of the case, that being the traffic laws involved, and now I have been forced to pay for their ignorance. Not only in money, but also in an incredible amount of emotional distress, in knowing that my supposedly trusted authorities, cannot be trusted, and must be supervised in their dealings with the public. Essentially, these agents, behaved, and spoke as if they would not be held accountable for their actions. They were rude, ignorant, and unprofessional, and deserve to be disciplined for their behavior.
 


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glb1976

Guest
Responders fall into same trap as beauracrats

Unfortunately, the responder of this post, along with several others who have sent previous personal emails to me have fallen into a similar predicament as the officials dealing with this case. As far as I'm concerned, anyone appointed to a position in which they are given direct authority over another should have enough common sense and legal judgement to see past their own prejudice. Contrary to the views of the 'home guru', who 'wasted his time', This is a very serious matter that illustrates the severe ignorance of the vast majority of those working in the public service sector. When a traffic sign is missing, it's case closed. Period. This is the complex science of traffic infrastructure, not Ripley's Did He see the other signs or not". Any individual intelligent enough to work for the government should also have enough common sense to realize the importance of EVERY SIGN placed in the road. So many of us tend to breeze through life on autopilot without ever appreciating or realizing the intricacies of life. Although 'home guru' and others like him/her may not realize it, constructing a system that directs thousands of 1-2 ton vehicles everyday is not such a simple task. Especially when there are also defenseless people involved, I'm amazed at the vast ignorance displayed by so many people. Sorry I wasted your time 'home guru'.
 
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glb1976

Guest
Sorry I wasted your time home guru

Unfortunately, the responder of this post, along with several others who have sent previous personal emails to me have fallen into a similar predicament as the officials dealing with this case. As far as I'm concerned, anyone appointed to a position in which they are given direct authority over another should have enough common sense and legal judgement to see past their own prejudice. Contrary to the views of the 'home guru', who 'wasted his time', This is a very serious matter that illustrates the severe ignorance of the vast majority of those working in the public service sector. When a traffic sign is missing, it's case closed. Period. This is the complex science of traffic infrastructure, not Ripley's Did He see the other signs or not". Any individual intelligent enough to work for the government should also have enough common sense to realize the importance of EVERY SIGN placed in the road. So many of us tend to breeze through life on autopilot without ever appreciating or realizing the intricacies of life. Although 'home guru' and others like him/her may not realize it, constructing a system that directs thousands of 1-2 ton vehicles everyday is not such a simple task. Especially when there are also defenseless people involved, I'm amazed at the vast ignorance displayed by so many people. Sorry I wasted your time 'home guru'.
 
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DEMTHENES

Guest
not a lawyer

but I did just convince the magistrate to lower it from 50 to 10 $ Seems to me a jury would dis agree with a beauracrat and it also fails to answer a query of "how come the city practices extortion on those whose rights they are authorized to protect?"Now many of those I spoke to in my circle of friends were of the impression that the city is ALWAYS right because ITS THE LAW! well heres my theory THEY ARE WRONG! that is like telling someone who asks "what is christmas?" "DEC 25th" or "when you have to go shopping" The point being that unless you are some sort of #@!$#&^(*off you VALUE freedom You will be needing frequently to remind those entrusted with the authority that it is not a chance to feed at will on your pocket book,Suggest that the MUTCD would provide all federal guidelines on the posting rules for all signage the fact is you DO have a choice but more you have a duty to all who died for this system to keep the spirit alive /this means to care about the common needs not merely personal.In my situation I clearly failed to pay but I was shopping and left pretty fast and I just got fed up with the sense of BS that they would call such outrageous extortionistic practices LEGAL .SO i got recipts from that day and got my little hearing to see if a settlement could be reached but I was prepared to get my chance to make a point about the particularly pernicious use of overzealous enforcement in a neighborhood where small funky cool shops were still unencroached upon by the BIG GUYS SUPERMALLS and that sort.I feklt it was fair considaring that I was shopping and that I did spend over 100 $ that they cut some slack I feared my words fell on deaf ears but she capitulated >So try for a day in court .DO it for FREEDOM!
 

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