Looks like
Mr. T exposed himself this morning in the
letters to the editor section of the Lincoln Journal Star (last letter):
...A note to my fellow Lincolnites: Beware of the city criminalizing you through obscure parking laws in order to obtain revenue. I just fell victim to this when my car was ticketed twice for violating a 24-hour parking law I had never heard of while I was out of town on vacation.
Upon returning, the city attorney’s office informed me this law was “common knowledge” and, despite my need to use on-street parking at my apartment, the city’s law required me to move my car from one side of the street to the other or around the corner ever 24 hours.
Of all the ludicrous laws! How is an honest, law-abiding citizen to keep up with them all? I hope sharing my $20 tough-luck lesson will help others avoid breaking the law unwittingly and being taken in by Lincoln’s underhanded means of procuring revenue.
Christa Kinsley, Lincoln
Hmph. You might've thought Mr. T's name would have started with, y'know, a T. Oh well, this sounds so much like Mr. T it has to be him.
Anyway, in
Mr. T's Miss Kinsley's defense, the 24-hour law is pretty harsh. As hard as it is for the auto-dependent among us to believe, some people actually don't need their cars for days or weeks at a time. Forcing those folks to move their cars every day seems awfully silly.
On the other hand, the city needs
some way to identify abandoned or trouble cars, and the city's streets shouldn't be used for long-term storage. So how can we approach a win-win on this? I have two top-of-the-head ideas. First (and most obviously) we need to extend the length of time vehicles can be parked on-street. I think I can make a solid argument for anywhere from 36 to 72 hours. The police won't like the longer time span because it will complicate their job a bit, but the law should be designed not for the enforcers, but for those it is enforced upon. Areas for which the 24-hour restriction still makes sense can and should remain 24 hours, but there will need to be a clear and obvious reason for that limit to remain in effect, and the shorter time limit should be made clear with signage.
My second idea is some sort of "I live in this neighborhood and I need a car but I don't drive every day so quit harassing me" permit. For an annual fee, persons who can prove their residence in an area would be given a sticker (a window decal, most likely) that would permit them to park on the street for longer than usual. The fee should cover only the cost of the program; it should not be a revenue-generator. Vehicles would have to be parked within two linear blocks of the residence to which they belong. I'm not crazy about creating more red tape but, well, it's just an idea.
Anybody have any other ideas? Or is anybody brave enough to face Mr. T's wrath and defend the status quo?