Thursday, April 30, 2009

I have a 90 mile door-to-door commute to work every day, and yes, I work in DC.  Some have wondered why I refuse to live closer.  There are a number of reasons.  The munchkins are happy where we are.  They love their school, their friends, the safe area, the fact that they can play outside after it turns dark without fear of horrible things happening.  Their dad is here, and I would never move them away from him.  The cost of living here is much more manageable than Northern Virginia or DC.  I can carry openly here or concealed without cowards crapping their pants in hoplophobic shock.

And then there’s this.

We all know DC bureaucrats have absolutely no respect for private property.  After all, they feel it necessary to do everything in their power to leave their citizens vulnerable and unprotected while the armed scum prey upon them, their property and their loved ones.  But this… it’s repugnant.

“Any area between the property line and the building restriction
line shall be considered as private property set aside and treated as
public space under the care and maintenance of the property owner.”

Basically what that means is most property owners in the District don’t
own the land between their front door and the sidewalk, but they are
responsible for taking care of it. It’s why you can get a ticket for
drinking beer on your front porch in the Nation’s Capital. You’re
technically on public space. It’s also why the city can ticket you for
parking in your own driveway if you don’t pull your car deep enough
into the driveway beyond the façade of your house or building.

To be clear, we’re not talking about people who park in shallow
driveways and let the rear of their cars block the sidewalk. The cars
are off the road, off the sidewalk and in the driveway – just not far
enough back for the city.

What this means is that your driveway is not your property, and the city can arbitrarily ticket you for parking on what you thought was your own property.  They need money.  DC residents have it.  They’ll extort it any way they can.

The only bright side is that they actually ticketed Eleanor Holmes Norton.

“Not only has the Congresswoman been ticketed in
her own driveway, she has received a towing ticket on her car parked in
her driveway,” writes Sonsyrea Tate Montgomery, a spokesperson for
Norton. “She did what any other Member would do -and any resident. She
contacted her Council Member, Tommy Wells, who assured her the Council
will take care of this problem even if it means passing a new law.”

Of course, I can’t imagine that the action would have been as swift and the attention as great if it was any other peon contacting the politicians about the same issue, but this is DC.  They vote more than 90 percent Democrat in every election.  As far as I’m concerned, they deserve it.