Sunday, October 27, 2013

You can park in the bus stop if you go to church

I've been pissed for years about the rules that allow church-goers to park in the middle of the street on Sunday morning, while people who engage in secular activities (yoga? the gym? brunch?) get tickets.

But it's getting worse.

I was riding my (secular) bicycle down Valencia this morning and I saw a car parked right in the bus stop next to a "church parking only" sign. That's normally like a $250 ticket. It's a BUS STOP. You can't park there. But yes you can, apparently.

And there was a parking control office right across the street, giving out tickets, as he should have been, to people who didn't feed the (secular) meter.

I asked why the people who park in the bus stop don't get tickets Sunday morning, and he said he was as frustrated as me. But his supervisors have made it clear that anyone going to church gets a pass on the tickets that the rest of us have to pay.

This would never stand up in court.

If we want to suspend parking rules Sunday morning, fine: Let everyone park in the middle of the street and in the bus stops. But how can we possibly decide that a religious service gets a special privilege? 

Check it out.




















9 comments:

  1. Maybe, take it to court or get everybody to go the church. Might be good. There was a Gospel reading today on being self righteous. really. LK 18:9-14

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  2. I complain about this all the time. Maybe we need to ask Supervisor Scott Weasel why he doesn't apply himself to this.

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  3. At the end of Cortland at Mission, the bus stop lines are painted to take in the entrance to the driveway at the back parking lot of my pals at Zante's. Late one Saturday night a few weeks ago, I drove down to the bus stop to meet my daughter's bus. I waited in Zantes driveway. I was there for about 3 minutes (I know because of the text which said, "I'm almost there" from my teenager). A white truck pulled in behind me, a man got out, came up to my window and started banging on it and shouting at me to move my car. I asked for ID, he kept shouting and threatening me. I closed my window and called the cops, hoping my daughter's bus didn't arrive that moement. They came, he gave me a $271 ticket. He was a Muni supervisor. Scared me, which isn't easy to do. Was a total thug. Nice. No rules of conduct, no recourse.

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  4. It would be nice if people stop driving cars around San Francisco. It makes it hard to live here. I haven't owned one for going on 6 years.

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  5. wow this is some serious nonsense. i guess we no longer believe in the separation of church and state...

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  6. Riding a secular bicycle? There's you problem right there. If you want the same perks as the churchgoers, you're going to need a cross bike.

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  7. @Jerry, Scott Wiener has been a tireless advocate for fixing MUNI, pedestrian and bicycle safety, etc. I wrote to him about all the cars that illegally clog Dolores every weekend, and SFMTA's unabashed refusal to ticket them -- this was his response:

    "As for illegal median parking, I agree that it’s not a good thing. MTA has been very ginger in doing anything of significance to address it, and politicians who’ve tried to get it addressed in the past have had their rear-ends handed to them. It’s a citywide issue that will require leadership from the Mayor, through the MTA, to do something about it."

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  8. Scott weasel sure knows how to play it, doesn't he?

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