Nicole Dreis, an apartment dweller near 23rd and W Burnside, penned an angry letter to the city this week. She lives downtown, doesn’t have a driveway or other private parking spot, and shells out $32 a year for a residential parking permit. She also follows the city’s pervasive ethos, and walks or bikes to work almost every day, leaving her car parked on the street.
Which brings her to her point: She feels like the city “sends their pawns out into the field in search of a quick buck.” There have been many instances where she’s left her car parked on the street for more than 48-hours–for two weeks, actually. Last year, she finally returned to her car after a long parking stretch, and found two violations for failing to move her car “in over 48 hours.”
In a second instance that happened last month, her car again was parking for “roughly two weeks.” When she returned to it, “I wasn’t shocked to find two tickets on my windshield,” but she was surprised that they were for “expired tags on my license plates.” She says she renewed her plates back in May, but but “must have forgotten to put those tiny stickers on my license plates” and now faces an $80 fine. “I find it ironic that a city, which bills itself as ‘the city that works,’ would punish its residents for following the very principles that it preaches–to use less and conserve more.”
She adds:
Nicole’s two page letter is after the cut. What do you think? Is she right on in her assessment of how the city handles urban dwellers’ unused cars? Or is she protesting a bit much, and ducking her responsibility? (I say the car’s causing a bit of stress, and she should sell it and join Zipcar. It could be a hell of a lot cheaper than insurance, registration, and the “$100 or more a year in parking tickets” she’s currently paying.)
Oh, so she “must have forgotten to put those tiny stickers on my license plates”??
So from the traffic enforcement perspective, she didn’t renew her plates. What the hell is she complaining about? What are they supposed to do, go knock on her door and ask her if she maybe just forgot to put the tiny little stickers on her car?
The next time I go downtown, I’m going to not pay for parking, the cry when I get a ticket and use the “I must have forgotten to put those tiny little coins in the cute little parking meter” defense.
Come on, this isn’t Nam, there are rules!
Hmmm, I’ve tried posting this comment 3x so far but it keeps getting erased…
I agree with Amy… sell the car if it is such a greater burden on your life than a benefit. If you are living in a dense urban environment, take full advantage of public transportation and only need personal motorized transport 2 times a month, then why not put extra money in your pocket by selling the car? The comment in the letter about not noticing her own expired registration tags after four months also brings home the point that she may not use it often enough to make possession worthwhile.
How are the enforcement people supposed to tell the difference between an “infrequently” driven car and an “abandoned” car? Abandoned cars are a big problem in some neighborhoods, and the Mercury has quoted me in an article on this topic in the past.
I’d be willing to make a compromise on policy, extending the “48 hour” rule to more days, perhaps even a week, but coupled with greater ability to cite and tow truly-abandoned autos. Right now, you can’t have a vehicle towed that’s been sitting around unmoved, accumulating trash, for months and months, unless there’s a safety problem with the vehicle or flat tires… they can only leave warning notes until something is wrong with the car, and expired tags isn’t a towable offense.
On-street parking is a public good provided by the City for the benefit of everyone. $32 per year is not “shelling out” nor does it even come close to paying the City’s costs for constructing and maintaining that space. If Nicole wants a driveway or a place to park her car permanently, then she should buy one.
An abandoned vehicle is defined by City Code (section 16.90.005 ) as one that is:
* illegally stored, in excess of 24 hours, on the street,
and in addition, either:
* does not display valid license plates, or
* appears inoperative, disabled, wrecked, or dismantled.
They could have towed her.
http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=34799&
“Q8: Can I park my car on the street for longer than 24 hours at a time?
A8:
No. All vehicles must be driven off the block face daily. Private, legal parking must be obtained if a vehicle is not driven daily.”
It’s an interesting general question, since not using the car is certainly a good thing, but the nature of the neighborhood is, parking spaces are supposed to turn over so everyone has a chance to use them (especially during the day when businesses are open). That said she’s also very unlucky (or someone is actually reporting her) as I do the same thing and have never been ticketed for it.
I’ve seen cars with expired tags get towed from my neighborhood in NE. Seems reasonable to me– if it’s an unregistered vehicle, why should it be allowed storage on public roads? Hell, that’s more or less the way it’s been in every city I’ve lived in. And in regard to whining about how she’s so special for choosing to live downtown, she needs to get over herself. Many suburbs have way, way more strict street parking regulations. I say Portland’s pretty goddamned reasonable.
If she thinks she’s gotten tickets unfairly, she should appeal ’em.
Sounds like a whiner to me. In Manhattan, we have opposite side of the street parking rules. Gotta move the car all the time.
Change your tags and move your car from time to time.
Also, cursing in your official letter to the city never helps w/ the cred…
I notice nowhere does she deny breaking every law she was cited for breaking.
What a whiny biooootch!! And people actually wonder why I’ve been single for several years.
Yeah, the laws are there for a good reason. On my street, I’m glad they “prey on infrequently driven” vehicles, otherwise I would still be looking at a disheveled truck with a trailer that looked like it was packed by the Clampetts attached to the back behind the most dilapidated RV in the world.
As it is, though, they generally move after a few weeks (whenever they get warned or cited, I’d guess). And I’m not sure $32/year is really enough money to be considered “shelling out”.
i think she should go die in a fire.
She’s leaving her car parked downtown for 2 weeks at a time?
She’s lucky to only get 2 tickets!
One of the rules for the area parking permit program as Jason pointed out above:
“All vehicles must be driven off the block face daily. Private, legal parking must be obtained if a vehicle is not driven daily.”
Seems pretty cut & dried. If she doesn’t see anything wrong with leaving her car in a public space (that she gets on the SUPER CHEAP) then she is an idiot…
…or a self-important, whiny windbag with an inflated sense of entitlement.
Thanks for the comments everyone. I agree that I probably do sound a bit whiney in the letter – I guess that it was just out of frustration. My intent was to raise awareness of the plight of many of us living downtown. But I guess that I’m in the minority in my sentiment – and that’s okay. It’s good to get some feedback. And the comment about the Zip Car is a valid one – I’ve been thinking about selling my car for a while. I’m a bit surprised that the entire letter was scanned and posted, but, that’s okay. Thanks for at least taking out my address – considering that at least one of you think that I should die in fire(?)
Unlike all of the posts before mine, i see her point.
It is rediculous that downtown dwellers should be forced to move their cars everyday to avoid ticketing. Especially in a place like portland where alternatives are highly encouraged.
I also think that calling Ms Dreis a bioootch, an idiot, and saying that she should die in a fire makes your points sound dimwitted and foolish.
yeah, i came to sympathize as well, and i’m stunned to see so many people who’ve obviously never left their cars alone for more than 24 hours. i’ve had this happen to me in two different neighborhoods in southeast portland where there was plenty of parking, so it was clearly a matter of towing company profiteering combined with asshole neighbors combined with a car that wasn’t shiny and new. it really does punish people for not driving and being too poor to own the shiniest new SUV, and that’s a stupid thing to do.
call me a whiner for complaining about this, but if you think people who don’t drive every 24 hours should have their cars towed, you are an idiot and an asshole.
0) Sell the car and get a zipcar.
1) The rules are 48 hours. If you can’t/won’t follow that, then you need to park someplace else.
2) Just because you got caught when the car is stationary doesn’t really change the fact that the plates are expired, and you need to deal with that. And the fact that it took 3 months for them to notice probably means they weren’t specifically targeting you…
3) Yes, public transit and bicycling are good for you, and if you moved to the suburbs where you’d get plenty of free parking, you’d probably lose good transit and bicycle facilities/distances and have to drive more. It is a trade-off, and you made it, and the city doesn’t owe you anything for it.
The rules are very clear: vehicles parked on the street MUST be moved off the block face every 24 hours. If you can’t handle that with your car, then you need to find private storage for it. I live in Portland, and believe me, I do not want to wake up every morning to find your car (whatever it’s condition), stored on the street directly outside for days or weeks at a time. Unfortunately, city policy is very lax about this. In my neighborhood, it is impossible to get a ticket for these vehicles unless they are unregistered and/or disabled, and so the vehicles sit and sit and sit for ages until the lazy-ass owner decides to move it. It is SO disrespectful of the people living on the block. So yes, you either need to get rid of the car or move it to private storage. If I were in charge, you’d have gotten a lot more tickets than ones you have.