law & order: parking meter violation unit

As I've now just barely passed over that two year mark since my move to DC from Miami, I was just thinking the other day that I'd somehow managed to escape the clutches of DC's obsessive parking Nazis. I know it helps when the bulk of that time was spent with only my two feet as my means of transportation, but that's just a technicality... anyhow, although I now have a car, for the most part it looks pretty parked out on the street. I don't drive it to work and I rarely attempt to park it on the street in the city (that parallel parking resultion? yeah... still to come to fruition).

Last Friday I came home and saw what I thought was another flyer on my windshield. I was a little perplexed, since I did not know what on earth I could have done wrong. Only thing I could think was a violation of the "snow emergency route", but this was before the minute dusting of snow, so yeah - even in DC, that wouldn't be rationale behind the ticket.

I was almost laughing with Sassy when I saw that the ticket was for not displaying the zone sticker... the sticker clearly and appropriately already displayed in my window. I think perhaps instead of trying to get a measly $50 out of me, they should take the same out of their pocket and invest in a new set of spectacles for the individual in hot pursuit to find someone to ticket. The back provided info on contesting (which, duh, I will be doing) and mentioned to be sure to include any photos, descriptions, and/or diagrams with the ticket when submitting. Oh yeah - it's on.

One of the things I'm most proud of from my college days was my parking violation triumph versus the school. I should put it on my resume. Basically what happened was that the parking fines went up significantly at MSU and there was one place I had been parking for a year and half. I came back one day to a ticket. No sign had been posted making it a no parking zone and I thought it was convenient that they decided to pull this as soon as the increase went into effect. It's sort of like this video on You Tube... it's like you want to say, um no?

Photos, descriptions, and diagrams were definitely involved when I contested the ticket. It was a work of art. It was known that it was a waste of effort to fight the tickets since you just ultimately ended up paying the ticket fine plus the court fees, but I thought I had a shot - and I won.

So guess it's time for round two here in the District. Oh and if anyone wants to make a donation to buy the ticket officers some new glasses, I'm happy to include them in along with my masterpiece.