Tonight I was up in my room peacefully reading more poetry by a Puerto Rican wordsmith. A friend came into my doorway saying she was the bearer of bad news. She looked stricken and held in her hand a sliver of a piece of green paper. It says:
This vehicle is illegally parked
California Vehicle Code Section 22500f prohibits the parking, stopping or standing of a vehicle on ANY portion of the sidewalk (property line to curb line). Parking on the sidewalk is a hazard to pedestrians and disabled individuals and is subject to $100 fine effective July 2004.
Except it’s 2007 and I was parked in our driveway! I have parked in the driveway for over 2 years and never even received a warning. I was commisserating with my roomies later tonight and we didn’t even know this law. Where does one find these kinds of laws if not posted- I mean 2004 is 3 years ago and I was living in a different housing situation back then on Lincoln Ave by the ocean… Those days we could find street parking by Golden Gate Park. My car saw many nicks and swipes during that time period not to mention having one of the windows bashed in for a $19 plastic tea kettle.
Not only do they not issue a warning statement first, on my way to Trader Joe’s this evening I saw multiple DPT mobiles divebombing the streets like wasps and wondered what they were up to. One of them didn’t exactly stop at his stop sign either and almost careened into me. The nerve.
So you’ve read it here folks: in San Francisco you cannot park in your own driveway unless you ride a scooter or drive a toy car like the Miata or Mini. It’s a good thing we rent.
