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Re: “Do Disabled Motorists Need Free Parking?”
Moronic lazy policy.
I agree with costacoralito, charging for disabled parking defeats the entire purpose.
If there is fraud and folks using cards they are not entitled to, go after the fraud. Don't destroy a needed law.
And no, Joe Blow on the street should NEVER confront possible abusers... you have no idea what their medical situation is, nor should the disabled have to justify themselves to any cretin on the street.
If you suspect abuse, REPORT IT. Take a picture or video of the alleged offender and the vehicle and placard info and report it. Then the investigators can check things out and fine those not in compliance.
On the wrongheadedness of this policy I agree with Mara Math.
As for who I am, I am on full SSDI disability and in a wheelchair with two forms of arthritis and other medical issues. In other words my income is only a bit over $900 a month.
Personally I do not know why the non-disabled even drive, much less drive downtown. Are they too good for mass transit?
Re: “Activists Try to Get Rid of Juvenile Records Fee”
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Re: “Do Disabled Motorists Need Free Parking?”
The solution to the placard problem is not to charge disabled people, but rather to check whether the placard is legitimate and whether the driver has the proper documentation in the vehicle. Make the fines high for using the placards illegally. When a privilege is abused there are consequences. Those consequences should follow from the enforcement of the law, not punishing the disabled. I have trouble walking. I would rather be able to walk. The ability to park where I need to without having to worry about meters and time is invaluable to me.
Re: “Do Disabled Motorists Need Free Parking?”
So . . . in order to deter the able-bodied who commit fraud, punish the truly physically impaired who actually need and have legally obtained disability parking placards? Way to go! Hey, let's take away food aid from starving folks, too, since sometimes people who don't need Food Stamps steal them! And wasn't there just some big scandal in MediCare or MediCal where fake billing was uncovered? No more healthcare for the verifiably sick or disabled!
This has the reek of yet another effort to balance the budget on the necks of the poor and disabled. I suspect the Quan administration would rather collect money from those of us who are disabled than put a little muscle into cracking down on fraud. Increased fines for illegal placard use would be a real and far more effective deterrent to corruption, and add more to the budget than picking the pockets of the disabled.
Incidentally, why do people with placards need free parking? Because some of us can't make extra trips back and forth from our destination to our parking spot to feed the meter. Because medical appointments can run hours late. Because depending on one's disability, everything can take longer. Because many of us are on a fixed income precisely because we are disabled/because being disabled enough to qualify for a placard often means one can't work full time.
Re: “Activists Try to Get Rid of Juvenile Records Fee”
Why should a juvenile's records be sealed? Drive around with a gun... or steal an iPhone... and get away with it? I can't think of a policy that encourages juvenile crime more. I'm guessing this is one of the reasons that older gang members can recruit juveniles to sell their drugs and do other types of illegal activities.
Re: “Do Disabled Motorists Need Free Parking?”
What's so crazy about this is that we can have access and still collect for parking. Most disabled people need access to parking spots close to where they are going but they can afford to pay to park. So why not have disabled spots but not have them be free? Isn't this obvious?
Re: “Do Disabled Motorists Need Free Parking?”
The whole idea is to allow a disabled person enough time to function... feeding a meter defeats the whole purpose of the permit. Punish the people committing fraud if it is prevalent not the disabled. If more revenue is the goal then the answer might be to charge for the permits.
Re: “Do Disabled Motorists Need Free Parking?”
I second Mr. Chambers here. Some of us heart patients look visibly well on the outside but need to be close and need the access. What I resent is going into say the Safeway on 51st and seeing the meter guy in a city car in a disabled space!!This has happened on several occasions. I complained to the parking authority as this dude is obviously healthy and he is driving a parking enforcement vehicle and haas his own standard
Re: “Do Disabled Motorists Need Free Parking?”
I am a disabled person in a wheelchair. When I am not getting out of the car, my husband does not park in the handicap spots. So while he is in the store I get to watch at least 50% of people parking in the handicap spots literally jump out of their cars and run in to the store. There is alot of abuse out there! It infuriates me! These people should be happy that they can walk. It's pure greed and laziness! What are they teaching their kids? I agree we should pay for parking. If we are parking a vehicle, parking should be paid.
Re: “Sounding the Alarm”
"However, it remains to be seen whether Sacramento will find the money to build it in time."
No, Sacramento would rather waste money on a Bullet train to nowhere.
Re: “Do Disabled Motorists Need Free Parking?”
Today between 20th and Broadway and 23rd and Webster 90% of the vehicles parked on the street had placards... and there were almost no spaces available.
Re: “Do Disabled Motorists Need Free Parking?”
Wow. Talk about a bizarre, misplaced agenda by this reporter. Confront disabled people over their use of placards? Based on what? That they should have a limp or be missing a limb?
People get placards for reasons that might not be obvious visibly, such as a heart ailment or recovering from cancer treatment and being unable to walk long distances. What type of jerk gets in the face of these people?
Over possibly $150,000 in lost revenue for year? That's possibly $17 per hour of lost revenue. Lets go abuse people for that princely sum!
If this reporter thought about all sides of the story, instead of failing to question this bitter notion by some drivers that disabled people are getting away with something, he would have questioned some of the awful confrontations this story advocates for.
What's next? Go yell at the homeless guy in the soup line because he doesn't look starving to you?!
Re: “A New Place to Gamble?”
Thanks! This was very helpful.
Re: “A New Place to Gamble?”
Yes I agree that currently the establishments have been running in a quasi legal manor. Tonight I plan on trying to "Change the Times"; Once again I plan on offering to put my Ass on the line all in the name of trying my best to provide a Business Solution that works for everybody. I begin Farmers University Classes in subject of Anti Money Laundering, Client Data Protection etc etc. This semester must be done by Mid July. My Loss Prevention idea for the Cafe will include SAR'S reporting by Casinos of Me in Arrears and I U ME...it's what I personally can bring to the table along with the clout hopefully of F/U and maybe even a Welcome to the Camber and way to Show A Monty Carlo Knight actually working the Night-Shift. By the way the Names' Shawn Clinton Barry Esqr. office located inside the BMR aka Bill McAlley Napa Auto Works.
Felonious as well it might be Infamous of Risk I am going to figure out how to cover...Oh what else I can bring....who can top the Chief Master Sargent of the Pentagons Air Traffic Control or Computer Software distribution...trust me by being asked to find a hole or gap...I am can do kind of Guy.
Sorry to creator of this link, I used it to pander to my own base desires; please let me know if I have injured or offended you in doing so. Thank You Shawn C Barry
Re: “Quan's Budget Is Unsustainable”
Yes we have to significantly lower the cost of more cops and fire fiighters before we hire more, not afterwards. We also need to manage them so they do their work efficiently and safely for them and us. That takes political leaders who respect police without putting them on a pedestal. Not an attitude commonly found in Oakland pols who typically treat cops like unneccessary evils.
But we also have to get more results out of the millions our city spends or administers on anti-violence, job training, and various other "social" programs.
Have never seen anything from you about the abysmally low performing high cost per trainee job training programs Oakland runs. Maybe one or two of them get decent results. Most of them appear to only succeed in creating internal jobs for job counselors and trainers and administrators.
If we can't get better results out of those programs consider giving the money to OUSD to do the work and see if they can do any better.
Or spend as much of it as legally allowed on restoring Fed cuts to Head Start.
Re: “Unmasking The Art of Living”
A cult according to dictionary is simply a group of people centered around something or someone. Could b good or bad. Lets stop demonizing neutral words & then using them to demonize & slander good groups just because their new or small & non establishment. Its childish & cowardly. Thank u for the comments defending AOL & Shri Shri Ravi Shankar. They have helped many people & harmed none. Nothing is perfect, including skywalker & klim. Grow up & stop trying to use imperfections & honest mistakes to try to tear down & destroy good things u dont understand or fear & therefore hate . Lets stop the childish bigotry & anti pluralistic democracy that still exists to an extent in this supposedly free & pluralistic democracy. Lets finally grow up as a nation & REALLY lead the world in compassion & human rights instead of doing only sometimes to some extent. Skywalker & klim are cowards for slandering & betraying Ravi Shankar & AOL & then hiding behind computers. Shame on you.
Re: “Quan's Budget Is Unsustainable”
Now we have a new mini me real estate bubble and the Mayor and the Council are giddy in their rush to spend the increased revenues on more cops at high cost and restoring cuts that turned out to be only temporary to other city employees.
No, don't tell me that the "rainy day' reserve proves that our elected officials learned anything from the Dot Com and the Great Recession. That reserve goes poof as soon as Jerry Brown wiggles his pinkie.
And even if he lets us keep some of the Redevelopment money in the reserve, a 7.5% rainy day fund ain't much help in the face of the oncoming fiscal hurricane.
Re: “Quan's Budget Is Unsustainable”
The Mayor's proposed budget would be unsustainable after a couple of years even if she were not proposing increased spending on expensive cops and fire.
Her very competent budget office staff prepared the 5 year fiscal projection that shows we're scrogged because nothing has been done to fund all the huge overhanging "structural" obligations re the medical and pension costs of all the general fund employee costs, not just cops and fire; the deferred capital improvements, old pension costs etc.
All the Mayor did in her budget was repeat the mantra we've heard local politicians chant that "we have to start addressing the long term budget problems" but did absolutely nothing to start dealing with them. Nada. Zilch.
For any of our officials to blame the "Great Recession" for the city's problems is disingenuous. It's more a case of the "Great Dot Com and Great Real Estate Bubble" inflating the city's revenues for several years and thus covering up the underlying failure of normal revenue to cover current costs plus fund future retirement and infrastructure costs. Didn't help that just as the bubbles burst the baby boomers started to retire at the hoary age of 50 and 55 allowed by city contract.
Mayor Quan and all of the sitting council members other than the three newbies, signed the police and fire contract a couple of years ago that preserves and protects binding arbitration for cops and fire in all matters of personnel including compensation and discipline. The council agreed that if any of them tried to repeal binding arbitration that the police fire contract was null and void. So the Mayor and the council members can jawbone all day but the police and fire associations are not about to be guilt tripped into any major compensation concessions before they have to. (btw, check out the old PFRS retirement plan and find out whether a reduction in pay for new hires would lower retirement benefits to police and fire retirees of PFRS. I don't know the answer.)
Re: “Quan's Budget Is Unsustainable”
It's total bankruptcy: ethical, functional, financial. Oakland absolutely cannot protect the well-being of its citizens. Oakland has failed at police reform and management so costs are exceedingly high through low morale/high attrition, overly high salaries and excess overtime. "Leaders" have been financially incompetent, dishonest, short-term-oriented, incapable of understanding risk.
There's only one possible route to change: new leadership.
Re: “Do Disabled Motorists Need Free Parking?”
Do those who are receiving free parking due to a disabled tag also get discounted or free fuel for their cars? I think not, but that might be the next "well intentioned" move in this social scheme gone berserk. Disabled parking spaces in convenient locations are a good thing, but why should they be free in areas where other spaces are not? A law that is difficult to impossible to police is a law wide open to abuse, and that's exactly what we all see happening in almost any location. Considering the abuse, I recently chose not to apply for a disabled placard, because almost all such spaces are taken by people observed to "bound" out of their vehicles and briskly walk away. It is a joke! Of course removing an already-given entitlement prompts wails from those who have it, and that's the big problem with any entitlement these days. Many of the very comments here demonstrate that. Since billions have been spent to make access for the truly disabled more available on their behalf, one might think that the disabled would not mind paying for parking their cars, just like everyone else - but no, that's now out of the question. Well, perhaps we should go for complete equality among parkers and have all parking fees on public streets banned - making it a free-for-all for sure. Disabled parking abuse has become the almost unpunishable crime practiced by the masses, and it will go right on in today's entitled culture, no matter what this article advocates.