Parking Tix for parking against traffic

**liv in lawndale** · 04-18-2012, 11:37 PM

I saw on the news tonight that some Rhawnhurst (Faunce Street & Castor Avenue) residents were surprised when they went to their cars this morning. But not because a tire slasher had struck. They had received parking tickets around 10PM the previous night for facing the wrong direction on a two way street. The overall neighborhood complaint in the news report was that if the residents had been warned/told beforehand not to park that way they would not have. The residents thought they had been ambushed with the tickets since they had been parking this same way for years without any problems. Moreover, this action was not conducted by the dreaded PPA but by members of the 2nd police district of the PPD. I find this to be an absolute abomination! The police in the notheast division can not seem to stop the epidemic of tire slashings occuring in our neighborhoods but now they are going to crack down on someone parking the opposite direction on a two way street? To make matters worse, the commanding officer of the 2nd police district was interviewed in the report and gave the technical baloney for why this type of behavior (parking against traffic) is hazardous. Give me a break! Have they all gone nuts?

Adding insult to injury, the reporter showed cars parked on the streets in the vicinity of the 2nd/15th police district house, which could actually belong to police officers working at the time, that were also parked in the same technically illegal manner. Perhaps, the commanding officer of the 2nd district should get off his fat ass and tour the surrounding streets of the building he is working in. The Philadelphia Police Department should be above such baloney! With all the problems facing our area this is just picayune nonsense. It sounds to me that one particular officer may have a pet peeve about specific parking issues. The Captain would do well to take this particular officer's ticket book away from him/her and place that officer on a detail to guard against tire slashings. This kind of insensitivty gives the department and its members a bad name. Needlessly!

Naturally, this is in my humble opinion. And no, I was not the recipient of any parking tickets over there.

**DocAwesome** · 04-18-2012, 11:40 PM

I got a ticket for that about 10 years ago. Then again, I was in college and was an idiot.
I guess some things never change.

**Stingray66** · 04-19-2012, 12:04 AM

I saw that I have lived in philadelphia for over 50 years and it was always ok to park like that.
\Cops can't catch the tire slasher, but they are fast with the ticket book
That Captain HAS TO GO , better yet fired would be more like it
And then last night some kids through a rock at my front window last night around 10 pm and cracked the window
Called the cops and guess what THEY NEVER CAME OUT

Was told it was not a priority
My guess is they were to busy giving out tickets for parking
And its only going to get worse. Boy do I dread the warm weather. Things are about to get ugly

**caL** · 04-19-2012, 12:25 AM

Originally Posted by Stingray66

I saw that I have lived in philadelphia for over 50 years and it was always ok to park like that.
\Cops can't catch the tire slasher, but they are fast with the ticket book
That Captain HAS TO GO , better yet fired would be more like it
And then last night some kids through a rock at my front window last night around 10 pm and cracked the window
Called the cops and guess what THEY NEVER CAME OUT

Was told it was not a priority
My guess is they were to busy giving out tickets for parking
And its only going to get worse. Boy do I dread the warm weather. Things are about to get ugly

Do you live in the 2nd District or 15th?

**marbugkid** · 04-19-2012, 08:32 AM

They've been hitting the Lawndale/Burholme area for the last 10 months.... 2nd District.

The worst part is, they often don't place tickets....just send them to you in the mail.

The Fine - $50-60....so, take a day off to fight it or pay it and cut your losses?

The City sees a pure source of profit from this....meanwhile, Philly tax evaders are allowed to walk free and get hands slapped, while firemen die ....makes complete sense to me.

**Captain Awesome** · 04-19-2012, 08:42 AM

This is an effing disgrace.

**PhilaCap** · 04-19-2012, 08:47 AM

Parking against traffic is illegal. It's always someone else's fault.

**Stingray66** · 04-19-2012, 08:53 AM

Originally Posted by Stingray66

Do you live in the 2nd District or 15th?

YES

**The Truth Hurts** · 04-19-2012, 09:22 AM

The Homicide rate caused your parking ticket.

Let me explain,
The homicide rate for the year is up.
The media wants to know why.
The Mayor defers to the Police Commish,
The Commish defers to his analysts, (They tell him because the activity is down, Activity being vehicle investigations, pedestrian investigations and tickets)
Commish then tells the Chiefs,
Chiefs then tell the Inspectors,
Inspectors then tell the Captains,
Captains yell at the Lieutenants,
Lieutenants then yell at the Sergeants,
Sergeants threaten the Cops,
Produce activity or lose the assignment they have day in and day out screwing up their routine and maybe that vacation day you may need won't be granted.

The Cop after running from Radio call to Radio call all night didn't get a chance to produce any activity. They can't turn in nothing so the find something easy to do. This is why you probably got your ticket for parking the wrong way.
It's a classic, "**** rolls down hill"

**Captain Awesome** · 04-19-2012, 09:48 AM

Originally Posted by PhilaCap

Parking against traffic is illegal. It's always someone else's fault.

And so is slashing tires. And throwing rocks and windows. And sitting in a car naked on Frankford avenue while smashing your junk.

**DocAwesome** · 04-19-2012, 10:45 AM

Does anyone remember the "old" (they stopped using them around '08) tickets the PPA used to give out? They have a listing of offences that the PPA dude or dudette checks off, one of which was parking the wrong way. Every time I've seen it BTW it was a PPA ticket, not a PPD one - not to say that this precludes the possibility of the PPD having the authority to do so.

When I got the ticket back in 03 or whenever, I looked at it I thought:
"Well, this is bull****. I don't understand why this is a law, let alone an occurrance important enough to warrant it's own checkbox on a ticket with limited space. They just want everyone to unthinkingly conform. Regardless, I guess I didn't know this was illegal, and my ignorance is no excuse. Time to go pay the ticket."
What I didn't think was:
"Well, this is bull****. The PPA/PPD is wasting their time and should be enforcing some more important laws someone else is breaking. I've always done this. It shouldn't be illegal and therefore all the cops are corrupt."

ETA: And yes, I've kept all my parking tickets since '07. How I pine for the days of the $26 expired meter ticket.

**insolito** · 04-19-2012, 11:10 AM

I say let the mayor lay all those MFers off if they don't have anything better to do than write me parking tickets. I'd bet my paycheck that there would be absolutely no effect on the crime rate in this town... those a-holes don't bother to catch any serious criminals anyway.

**lemko** · 04-19-2012, 11:12 AM

Originally Posted by liv in lawndale

I saw on the news tonight that some Rhawnhurst (Faunce Street & Castor Avenue) residents were surprised when they went to their cars this morning. But not because a tire slasher had struck. They had received parking tickets around 10PM the previous night for facing the wrong direction on a two way street. The overall neighborhood complaint in the news report was that if the residents had been warned/told beforehand not to park that way they would not have. The residents thought they had been ambushed with the tickets since they had been parking this same way for years without any problems. Moreover, this action was not conducted by the dreaded PPA but by members of the 2nd police district of the PPD. I find this to be an absolute abomination! The police in the notheast division can not seem to stop the epidemic of tire slashings occuring in our neighborhoods but now they are going to crack down on someone parking the opposite direction on a two way street? To make matters worse, the commanding officer of the 2nd police district was interviewed in the report and gave the technical baloney for why this type of behavior (parking against traffic) is hazardous. Give me a break! Have they all gone nuts?

Adding insult to injury, the reporter showed cars parked on the streets in the vicinity of the 2nd/15th police district house, which could actually belong to police officers working at the time, that were also parked in the same technically illegal manner. Perhaps, the commanding officer of the 2nd district should get off his fat ass and tour the surrounding streets of the building he is working in. The Philadelphia Police Department should be above such baloney! With all the problems facing our area this is just picayune nonsense. It sounds to me that one particular officer may have a pet peeve about specific parking issues. The Captain would do well to take this particular officer's ticket book away from him/her and place that officer on a detail to guard against tire slashings. This kind of insensitivty gives the department and its members a bad name. Needlessly!

Naturally, this is in my humble opinion. And no, I was not the recipient of any parking tickets over there.

They like picking the low hanging fruit. It's easier to nail some poor schmuck for a parking violation than it is to address the real issues that put our neighborhoods in peril!

**fstrthnthwrld** · 04-19-2012, 01:49 PM

Sorry guys, I don't get the outrage. Some of you are in other threads complaining about benches in front of businesses or neighbors having a party on a saturday night that got a little loud, and how the city doesn't enforce their laws.

And now you're complaining that... the city decided to enforce one of it's laws.

You know it's illegal(not everything that's illegal makes sense, but not much you can do about it), so if you feel that strongly that you HAVE to park the wrong way, accept that you might get a ticket if a cop in a bad mood sees your car that night. If this was a bunch of people hit, I have a feeling someone caused an accident or something so they decided to crack down on it in that area.

Hell, I've never even gotten a ticket for this and still everytime my fiancee parks the wrong way I always run out to flip it around just in case. I don't think it's particularly dangerous or anything,.. I'm just not willing to bet $50 against the 1 minute of time it takes to make a u turn or go around the block.

The thought process that cops shouldn't enforce any law other than the most important ones being broken is insane and would make the city completely unlivable.

**Captain Awesome** · 04-19-2012, 02:15 PM

My street is so narrow that I'm surprised its two way. In fact, go up or down a couple of blocks and it actually is only one way. With that in mind, I don't see what the big deal is about which way I'm facing when I park.

If it's a street like Frankford, Rhawn, Ryan, or something similar, then yes, people should park facing the correct direction.

**insolito** · 04-19-2012, 02:56 PM

My beef with this is due to the fact that every single time I have to call the police for a legit reason- they don't show up. I live 5 blocks from a police station. I get it- they are too busy to respond about my seemingly minor issues (which are usually drunk and disorderly people, or atvs, fighting, etc...)... so the police don't have the time or inclination to respond to my quality of life issues, but they DO have time to write parking tickets for something as inconsequential as parking in the wrong direction? F them. The police don't do anything in this town but harass the hard working people they are supposed to be protecting.

**Markvator** · 04-19-2012, 05:09 PM

This is aimed at nobody specifically. If you park facing the wrong way often, then you are well aware that it is difficult to see the NOW oncoming traffic on the side of the street that you parked on. You driver side is now towards the curb, and if you are not sitting in a tall vehicle where you can see over the vehicle in front of you, you pretty much have to pull out with out being sure there is no traffic coming towards you. I get the opinion that there are more important things the cops could be doing. But parking the wrong way is illegal for a good reason. At the end of my drive way (alley?) there is always somebody parked half way into the entrance, making it impossible for a fire engine to get through. But I'll whine about that in another thread

**Radical Ed** · 04-19-2012, 06:56 PM

There's a scumbag in Frankford with his pants around his ankles, jerking off in his car and the police won't respond when called, but they're giving out traffic tix for parking the wrong way on a street less than 20' wide?
WTF is wrong with this picture???

**Zombo** · 04-19-2012, 07:06 PM

Originally Posted by Radical Ed

There's a scumbag in Frankford with his pants around his ankles, jerking off in his car and the police won't respond when called, but they're giving out traffic tix for parking the wrong way on a street less than 20' wide?
WTF is wrong with this picture???

Neighborhood profiling ????????????????????? Oops

is that allowed ???

**Jaysmom** · 04-20-2012, 07:05 AM

It seems like most of you want the cops to do their jobs....but only when it's convenient for you. Illegal is illegal and if you have parked illegally for years, consider yourself lucky. But you can't be mad at the cops for ticketing you. If you had parked legally, there would be no issue.