Monday, April 19, 2004
I am just a sucker for really difficult issues that some folks are really passionate about and a large majority of the public seems to not notice.
I was at a discussion meeting today with a batch of different groups talking about this parking on the sidewalk issue.. we were trying to figure out a way to possilby 'define a sidewalk'... it was reminding me of the natural areas program stuff.
A few very passionate folks dividing into separate camps, both feeling they are looking out for the public's best interest.. struggling to define what seems like an easy issue. But it ain't easy.
Some communities have barely 3 feet of sidewalk, some have 15 to 20 ft. If a car hangs out of its driveway 6 inches, should it get a ticket? 8 inches? 18 inches? The problem is of course, it's state law that mandates sidewalk rules, not city.
My idea folds very nicely into some of my current campaign notes. I would like to see decisions about sidewalk parking allowances done on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis. When I'm supervisor, I'll be fostering strong neighborhood involvement, which would include Block Captains who would be the 'boots on the ground' to communicate with neighbors and DPT (the ticket givers) so that the different parts of town would have their own sort of 'standards'... which of course would be the 5 feet ADA requirements minimum, and totally clear sidewalks at best.
Further changes in the way we do things would include sidewalk parking fine enforcement across the board, not just by complaint as it is now. This could be easily done (by hiring more DPT people) through rewording old Prop E, that talked about where parking ticket monies went... (I just heard that the authors of Prop E would be cool with that)
I was at a discussion meeting today with a batch of different groups talking about this parking on the sidewalk issue.. we were trying to figure out a way to possilby 'define a sidewalk'... it was reminding me of the natural areas program stuff.
A few very passionate folks dividing into separate camps, both feeling they are looking out for the public's best interest.. struggling to define what seems like an easy issue. But it ain't easy.
Some communities have barely 3 feet of sidewalk, some have 15 to 20 ft. If a car hangs out of its driveway 6 inches, should it get a ticket? 8 inches? 18 inches? The problem is of course, it's state law that mandates sidewalk rules, not city.
My idea folds very nicely into some of my current campaign notes. I would like to see decisions about sidewalk parking allowances done on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis. When I'm supervisor, I'll be fostering strong neighborhood involvement, which would include Block Captains who would be the 'boots on the ground' to communicate with neighbors and DPT (the ticket givers) so that the different parts of town would have their own sort of 'standards'... which of course would be the 5 feet ADA requirements minimum, and totally clear sidewalks at best.
Further changes in the way we do things would include sidewalk parking fine enforcement across the board, not just by complaint as it is now. This could be easily done (by hiring more DPT people) through rewording old Prop E, that talked about where parking ticket monies went... (I just heard that the authors of Prop E would be cool with that)
