Parking in The City
I've often said finding a good parking spot in San Francisco can bring you to tears. I've also said that sometimes I'll go somewhere purely for the sheer fact that I just happened to find a parking spot near there. Needless to say, there's a lot of adventures to be had parking in San Francisco that are hard to find elsewhere.
A few years ago, a friend was visiting for IBR. We parked downtown on a Saturday, and about 90 minutes later, we came out after our meter had run out and found a $35 ticket on the windshield. I grabbed the ticket and threw it in my car. "$35??" balked my friend, "for a parking ticket?" My other friend from San Francisco replied, "Please, most of us have a monthly budget for parking tickets." (Note, that same ticket would now be $50.)
Another friend came to visit, and I said I knew of just the restaurant to go to. We went to the Inner Mission on a busy Thursday evening. I said, "Be on the lookout for parking." "I can't find any anywhere." "Oh, there's one." I pulled into the median of a street between the two lanes of traffic. "Can you do that?" my friend asked. "I just did," I retorted. "But isn't it illegal?" "Oh quite." :-) (It's a $50 ticket if they would ticket you, but they don't usually patrol there that time of night, and if I did get a ticket, that would average out to $12.50 per incident, pretty cheap parking in San Francisco.)
Likewise, I met a friend for dinner tonight. I usually ride my motorcycle down but it was raining, and the buses were fairly inconvenient. So forgetting how long it takes to find a spot to park a car in San Francisco, I ran late. Pressed for time, I pulled into a red zone along with a few other cars. When I came out, luckily I had no ticket, but as I was pulling out, another car was waiting for my parking spot... my ILLEGAL parking spot. You know parking's bad when people are waiting to get into an illegal parking spot. :-)
A few years ago, a friend was visiting for IBR. We parked downtown on a Saturday, and about 90 minutes later, we came out after our meter had run out and found a $35 ticket on the windshield. I grabbed the ticket and threw it in my car. "$35??" balked my friend, "for a parking ticket?" My other friend from San Francisco replied, "Please, most of us have a monthly budget for parking tickets." (Note, that same ticket would now be $50.)
Another friend came to visit, and I said I knew of just the restaurant to go to. We went to the Inner Mission on a busy Thursday evening. I said, "Be on the lookout for parking." "I can't find any anywhere." "Oh, there's one." I pulled into the median of a street between the two lanes of traffic. "Can you do that?" my friend asked. "I just did," I retorted. "But isn't it illegal?" "Oh quite." :-) (It's a $50 ticket if they would ticket you, but they don't usually patrol there that time of night, and if I did get a ticket, that would average out to $12.50 per incident, pretty cheap parking in San Francisco.)
Likewise, I met a friend for dinner tonight. I usually ride my motorcycle down but it was raining, and the buses were fairly inconvenient. So forgetting how long it takes to find a spot to park a car in San Francisco, I ran late. Pressed for time, I pulled into a red zone along with a few other cars. When I came out, luckily I had no ticket, but as I was pulling out, another car was waiting for my parking spot... my ILLEGAL parking spot. You know parking's bad when people are waiting to get into an illegal parking spot. :-)
posted by Joe Carlin at 7:15 AM
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