Editor:
Re: Parking pains add to coffers, Sept. 23 letters.
Apropos of Ralph Sketchley’s letter to the editor, on Sunday my son came at 5 o’clock to pick me up for dinner at his home and parked outside another condo complex across the road from mine, because there was no parking any closer.
Usually, I meet him downstairs at the front door because of the parking situation, but he came earlier and had to park because he was going to install a small glass shelf for me in my living room.
Forty-five minutes later, we left my place to find he had received a parking ticket for “parking too close to a driveway”. If it was so, the ‘transgression’ was only an inch or so out of place and certainly wasn’t blocking access to that driveway.
Within that brief 45 minutes, a vigilant and observant ‘civic-minded’ person had found time to phone the parking authorities who, in turn, very promptly sent out one of their employees to do the deed.
This was Sunday evening, with not a workman in sight, and all the cars parked on the street on both sides had to be either those of residents or their visitors. No doubt the caller felt justified that his/her prompt action had resulted in prompt punishment for such villainy and added another $30 to the city’s coffers.
Generally on a weekend, at any time, one can rarely find anyone to answer any urgent civic matter, let alone such a slight infraction.
I have a slight handicap that makes walking difficult, but was able to cross the street to my son’s car with the aid of my trusty walking stick and his arm. If I or anyone else should ever fall on the street or otherwise need help, I would hope the same civic-minded person would be as prompt to call for help as he/she was in calling the parking authority.
Joanne Chipera, White Rock