Cross Parking On The Sidewalk

17 Comments

Comment by Hairy McLairy on December 1, 2008 at 3:45pm

I freekin hate that too. Its all around the Country Club & 14th Street, every evening.

If you had mobility issues or used a wheelchair, you would have to back track, go out onto the street, around the vehicle, and back onto the sidewalk.

Comment by slamwagon on December 1, 2008 at 4:59pm

"Bigger Fish to Fry" comes to mind.

Comment by Jombie on December 1, 2008 at 5:55pm

Just let the air out of one of their tires..bet they'll think twice.

Comment by Albuquerque Commentator on December 2, 2008 at 7:40am

I'm not going to bring myself to the level of taking the law into my own hands. It would be nice if there were clarity on the park of government about who is in charge and what their duties entail. In my observation most of this type of interference with sidewalk access occurs from the early evening into the night and on weekends when there is little enforcement effort.

I have to say I agree with Rodney, many people don't pay attention to the details around them that may cause trouble for others. In the spririt of "All politics is local" ( Tip O'Neil ) I may be nit-picking about small things, but they reflect the general attitude of people toward others and the attitude of government and selective enforcement.

Comment by slamwagon on December 2, 2008 at 8:09am

Rodney? Where did that come from? No, I like to think I'm a pretty considerate person. I was thinking that the reason the cross-parking across sidewalk violations aren't enforced is because the city has bigger problems to deal with. I don't think it's a non-issue, just not an issue the city can do anything about right now.

Comment by Albuquerque Commentator on December 2, 2008 at 8:26am

starrwagon

I have to strongly disagree. It is not so much a lack of resources but a lack of clarity on the part of the City. Parking Enforcement, according to various City sources, is mainly responsible for "parking violations". The question really is that the focus is almost entirely on writing citations for over time parking in marked spaces when in reality they are supposedly the enforcement agency for this kind of violation.

Problem is they are not on duty when most of violations occur. Parking Enforcement will tell you they will investigate, however it is generally not in real time or at the time the violations occur. They can not ticket unless the observe the violation. The alternative is to call the non emergency number, at their suggestion, and ask for the violation to be put on the non emergency call list for an APD patrol to investigate and ticket.

It becomes selective enforcement in favor of "meter revenue". If the City is going to get meter revenue, then the City should put more resources toward all parking enforcement. Blocked sidewalks are a safety issue, especially for disabled and wheelchair bound persons.

Comment by slamwagon on December 2, 2008 at 8:32am

I'll agree with you that it may be selective enforcement in favor of "meter revenue." However, our infrascructure has much bigger problems that hinder the mobility of the disabled and wheelchair bound.

Where the Sidewalk Ends was a reality to me growing-up in ABQ. :(

Comment by Rodney on December 2, 2008 at 8:36am

Sorry slam - retracted. You see, there's this guy in my neighborhood who apparently is of the opinion that the sidewalk is merely an extension of his driveway, so he parks his rather large truck with attached trailer so that it extends a good 6 feet into the street. It's a bit of a sore spot with several of his neighbors, and he apparently enjoys the negative attention he's getting from the (entirely ineffective) neighborhood association.

Comment by Khan on December 2, 2008 at 5:51pm

A lack of civic mindedness, a lack of empathetic abstract thinking. It makes me kind of nuts, too, less for any inconvenience that I myself have experienced as a result, but it is another one of those, "It's just old gasoline--why can't I pour it out in your flowerpots?" or "Whadda ya mean I burn an open pile of leaves against the fence? It's my property, you know!" moments that makes me realize that if I'm ever driven over in the street, I may well die there, because it won't occur to anyone to help.

Ever since the city put up those enormously expensive parking kiosks, the enforcers have been vulturously focusing on ticketing every single car that is a minute over (do you believe how much those machines cost?). With the Marty Bags over the kiosks in some areas for the holiday season (see conversation elsewhere today, also started by AC, I believe), maybe you guys can convince the parking cops to address some issues that actually affect the community, rather than just harassing people for spending money so their tax dollars can buy more kiosks.

(Believe it or not, I actually dialed back some of my sarcasm here and rewrote a bit.)
(Yes, "vulturously" is my own word that I just made up.)

Comment by hettie on December 2, 2008 at 11:26pm

I have neighbors who do this daily, most particularly the law office on lead, just south of yale (jarvis, maybe). I understand that they're trying to get the city to allow them on-street parking, I assume for clients who are the most likely sidewalk parkers, but I don't know how that's going for them. it drives me f*&%en crazy, though.

there used a veteran-type gentleman in a motorized scooter who went up and down lead ave. in front of my house daily. he always stopped to chat and once mentioned that he often had to go out into traffic (on lead!) when cars were parked across drives. he also had a story about doing that once in front of the family dollar on yale and getting hit by someone who took off after knocking him over in his wheelchair. of course, the story ended with "if I had landed on my other side, I coulda reached my pistol and shot his damn tires out."

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