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Treat Avenue residents are up in arms about a rash of DPT ticketing Saturday (1/31/09) on their street.

While Treat Ave does have some significant parking and traffic issues (many due to the fact that it is a narrow dead end street with no turn around), Saturday's ticketing was all about what one person called "petty technicalities that wasn't harming anyone".
What we know is that at 8am Saturday morning, DPT cited over 10 cars on one block for being parked the wrong direction on the street. Because there were no apparent safety issues, many people felt this was a "revenue action" on the part of DPT. People have stated that because it was the last day of the month, that DPT may be trying to reach revenue quotas. (We're trying to contact DPT to find out more about this.)

One neighbor has left signs around asking people to complain about this by emailing Supervisor Campos' office.

Here's a letter that's been posted on the street from Barbara:



Other parking issues have been double-parking and blocking the sidewalk. DPT has repeatedly ticketing the "Tiger Beer" Bajaj Scooter Pickup (which is a motorcycle under California law) for parking on the sidewalk in front of the owner's house; and ticketing of other cars for protruding onto the sidewalk from their driveways.

Many residents have professed that protruding onto the sidewalk is acceptable if it does not interfere with with pedestrians. While some residents do park in a way that impedes the pedestrian right-of-way, those are rarely ticketed.

Double parking is a more-mixed issue. Treat is a narrow street, and sometimes double-parkers make it impossible for wide vehicle (and delivery trucks) to safely pass by them. Other times double parking makes it hard for other residents to get out of their driveways.

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

[UPDATE: this is happening in Sunnyside, Glen Park and other parts of Bernal Heights as well. DPT needs the revenue!]

Labels: Neighborhood Watch, News, parking, precita valley neighboars, Precita Valley Neighbors, pvn