The Parking Ticket

Everyone wants to support downtown and being a Danvillian
I feel the same way. Last week I went downtown to meet some
friends for lunch.Since it was lunch time there were very
few parking spaces located on Main Street. I saw one opening,
however, the car parked behind was over the white line.
There was room enough to park, but the car in front was also
parked over the white line, since the previous driver also
had had to park over the line. My initial thought was
if I get a ticket, all of us will get a ticket because
someone before me had misjudged their parking angles.

Much to my chagrin, as I returned to my car I noticed that
the other two cars had already moved, leaving my car all
alone and over the white line. In retrospect, I should
have never parked in that spot, I should have just driven
around until I found a good slot, because when I returned,
I had received a parking ticket for parking over the white lines.
The ticket giver was up the street and I proceeded to tell
her my tale ,and even though she might have been sympathetic,
her hands were tied because of city hall. They would not allow
any adjustments by her, but, I could go before some tribunal,
fill out some forms, let them have their conference and if
deemed fitting, I might be exonerated or made to pay the fine.
The fine was only $10.00 and I had only 5 days in which to pay it.
I had to get back to work , so I wrote a check , put on a
stamp , sent in the payment, and sat down to write my saga.
As I told the ticket giver, I had discovered downtown and it
cost me $10.00. My gut feeling is that I will go back to the
mall or another city restaurant, with my clients and friends,
and leave downtown restaurants to fend for themselves. As an aside,
I visited many of the downtown shops later to find out that a
lot of downtown merchants park on Main Street and every two hours
go out and move their car to another location in order to miss
the wrath of the downtown ticket giver. I hope this is
not true and that all of them were pulling my leg. Surely
if they all know , then the ticket giver must know, and if
that is the accepted rule, then can we either make a rule for
me as a first time violater and give me my money back, or how
about this unique idea....Free Parking for everyone even if
you park over the white lines. This is not a new concept.
Piedmont Mall has had this for years.
Hmmm, could there be some correlation between free parking
and doing business, or taking up the parking spaces with
merchants cars and giving tickets for going over the white
lines , whether or not it was your fault.
I could be wrong....but I am betting that Coleman Place does
some business, unless they start giving parking violations.