[OldNorth] No parking zones for street parking

[bill west]

cc  Old North:  FYI

TO:  Safety Advisory Commission
Bill Bernheim; Dan Fenocchio; Xiaopei (Chad) Qi; Andrew Ramos; Sean 
Shimada, & Tim Spangler (Alternate)
c/o DPW, 23 Russell Blvd, Davis 95616

FM:  Bill West, homeowner 612 E Street and Stacy Baba 614 E Street   
(530) 753-3144

SUBJECT:  Agenda Item D-1   Dec. 8 meeting, 5:00 pm   No Parking Zone 
for Purposes of Street Sweeping in N. Davis

It is difficult to collect one’s thoughts and then present them smartly 
at a public hearing ... thus I’m writing.  Please consider the 
following points:
*	Why no vote?  No one has asked for our votes on this parking issue  
...  although we were empowered to vote on the “N” parking zone issue.  
Why not vote on this one?
*	Can We avoid tickets?  Some neighbors, like us, take Bart to Bay Area 
and bus to Sac Airport periodically ... and necessarily leave our cars 
on the street overnight.   Are we to get tickets for not moving our 
cars across the street while we are gone?  What will such tickets cost?
*	Where can we park while gone?  Where will we be able to park our cars 
to avoid getting tickets? Is there a public street or City parking lot 
where we can safely leave our cars for 3 or 4 day trips,  up to a week? 
  Will multi-day overnight parking on various city streets be legalized 
to accommodate we travelers?  In addition to trips of a few days to a 
week ... there are one day or overnight trips on Wednesdays/Thursdays 
that would make parking “across the street” not possible for us.   The 
COOP disfavors using their lot overnight, as do the local banks & 
businesses on 4th.
*	Reduced tickets?  If the ordinance is passed, can we have a reduced 
ticket amount, say $5 for 'no-other-option' violators that would not 
break our banks?
*	No-ticket situation?   What about an exemption from a parking ticket 
if the homeowner has personally cleaned the area in front of his home?  
After all, the whole idea presumably is to get the streets swept, not 
to generate revenue.  I.e., no tickets for parking in street areas that 
are clean, where further street sweeping would be wasteful.
*	Only in Autumn when leaves fall.  Assuming that homeowners fail in 
their own personal responsibilities to rake leaves .... in the Autumn 
when leaves fall.  Why not limit the ordinance to Oct .. Nov .. and 
Dec?   Totally unnecessary the other 9 months of the year.
*	 Friction among neighbors.  Neighbors will be competing for their 
customary home parking spots on Thursdays and Fridays.  Friction is 
guaranteed.  Is this worth the perceived benefit of slightly more 
thorough sweeping?
*	Why not a voluntary choice?   Why not encourage people to park  
across the street instead of making it an offense punishable by ticket? 
  This encouragment would be effective if presented by the Old North 
Assoc. on a neighborly basis.
*	Why not once a month instead of weekly?   Especially since leaves 
only fall  in the Autumn ... why not change the rule to only the first 
weekend of each month?
*	Not a homeowner’s association.  Old N. Davis association does fine 
work ... but it is not a homeowner’s association that can rule by fiat, 
  and it ought to be required by the City to get a vote of the residents 
before presenting proposed ordinances on any topic for adoption by the 
City.  This even though the City conducts public hearings which, by 
their nature, are no substitute for reasoned votes by the citizens.
*	Mondays (garbage days) already are difficult parking days.   Some 
people park in front of garbage cans on Mondays and in front of (or on 
top of) leaf piles on Wednesdays.   Neighbors help each other move 
stuff when these situations arise.  But we don’t need Thursday and 
Friday ‘no parking zones’ to cause more neighborhood problems as we 
compete for limited spaces.
*	Present system OK for years.  For years almost all homeowners have 
kept their respective portions of the street clean in front of their 
homes ... and street sweeping has been eminently adequate for years as 
it is now done (at least in my opinion).
*	“X” zone treated differently?   Do people who park in "X zone" (e.g., 
E street, 4th-5th)  have to park on opposite sides for street sweeping? 
  I don't think so.  Can we park there for a few days at a time without 
being ticketed (or worse, towed) as “abandoned” cars?

Thank you for taking the time to read and consider these points.

Bill W. West
(530) 753-3144

     	



  
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