Our monthly Newman Park Neighborhood Association board meeting was held this past Saturday morning at Cinco Puntos Press on the corner of Ochoa and Texas Avenue. I arrived there at 7:53 a.m. and promptly deposited 3 quarters in the parking meter for one and a half hours of parking. Our meetings never go too much beyond an hour. However, this Saturday we did run a bit longer. When I got to my car around 9:40, there was a parking ticket waiting to greet me. The ticket was written at 9:37 - 14 minutes after the meter had expired.
Now I know that everyone wants to visit the outskirts of downtown El Paso on a Saturday morning. It is so bustling with traffic that people have to circle blocks over and over just for parking.
NOT!!!
Above are photos I took after being dutifully cited for my blatant greed at taking up a precious parking spot near downtown by a diligent meter cop whose salary is probably solely derived from such raptor-like watchfulness for the City of El Paso.
The top photo was taken in the middle of the intersection of Texas and Ochoa looking west toward downtown. Note the heavy traffic of people sightseeing the empty buildings of downtown El Paso.
The second photo is taken from the same spot but looking east. It's amazing that I wasn't run over.
The third shot was taken from several blocks farther east.
The fourth shows two hours parking in front of businesses not much farther east on Texas. I wonder how a little business such as Cinco Puntos Press might be able to procure such favoritism from the City as well.
I can understand passing out parking tickets when parking is at a premium. The problem is - it isn't even a premium on weekdays in downtown El Paso. This is merely another way to frisk the El Paso taxpayer.
I can understand passing out parking tickets when parking is at a premium. The problem is - it isn't even a premium on weekdays in downtown El Paso. This is merely another way to frisk the El Paso taxpayer.
I don't know where I'm going with all of this but I know one thing: It will be a cold day in hell before I pay a cent of this $11 ticket. It will be the temperature at which nitrogen freezes in fact.
1 comment:
Raise some hell, Jim. I agree wholeheartedly. Indeed, those meters shouldn’t even be running on Saturdays. They turn away any business that might come down Texas Avenue. On Saturday mornings those guys puttering along on their Segues along like Hopalong Cassidy on his white horse Topper searching for evil-doers, (AKA Jim Tolbert and his breed).
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