I resent UP's use of median strip (public space) advertising with lawn
signs. This is illegal, and I never hesitate to call DPW (which can fine
the company).

I would suggest you touch base with the D.C. Office of the Attorney General
to see whether there is some formal complaint you can bring against the
company for fraud.

-- ESG

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

No-one in my story was anywhere near a corner or in any way parked in
a dangerous place. They were just people trying to do their
neighborhood jobs.
And your questions to the "Parking Control Aide" seem rather
empathetic....

1. "Yeah...."
2. "You know, you're right....."
3. "And, yet......"
4. "The one time I went to traffic court, the thing that I noticed
that people said, more than anything else as the excuse was "Everyone
else was doing it."
> WOODHOUSE: Right.
5. "Right".

You've been watching too many probing cable news interviews, Richard.
Or maybe you should drive more. Or should we both come clean that we
once worked together?

Mark

--- In COMMUNIT-E@yahoogroups.com, "Richard L. Paul"
<rlpaulproductions@...> wrote:
>
> Several years ago I did a long story for WAMU where I spent the day
with a
> Parking Control Aide (as she said in the piece, "I don't think we can
> emphasize that enough -- we hate that name 'Meter maids.' We no
longer use
> that term.")
>
> Here's an exchange from the story:
>
> ERICA WOODHOUSE: A lotta people prob'ly say that we are nasty. That
we are
> cold hearted. That we don't care (radio squawks). A lotta
people'll holler
> "get a real job." You know "The District needs the money, is that
why all
> you are writin' all these tickets?" No it's (door slams) we
required to do.
> It's a job.
> RICHARD PAUL: Yeah, what is the purpose of parking enforcement --
'Cause
> there are a lotta people who say it's just here to get the city more
money.
> WOODHOUSE: To regulate curb space. To regulate traffic, so it will
NOT be
> congested during rush hour. If we can control the curb space, that
means
> there won't be as many accidents -- you can see when you come the
> intersections -- you don't have to lean up to see if anything's
comin' If a
> person is parking in a cross walk, that's dangerous to a pedestrian.
Bus
> stops. You can't park in the bus zone. Why (chuckles)? Because
the bus
> zone has to be clear so when the bus pulls over it can load and
unload the
> passengers without a problem. That's pretty cut-and-dry. All the red
> signs -- any kind of red sign that states "Tow Away", that means you
cannot
> park there. At all.
> PAUL: You know, you're right. It IS cut-and-dried. And yet,
> WOODHOUSE: Cut-and-dry
> PAUL: And yet, everyday you're out here and there are just people
that don't
> pay any attention to the red signs -- park in the wrong places. Why?
> WOODHOUSE: I don't even know why. I mean people -- people really
just think
> that we're wrong. But we're not wrong. It's just that you have to
park
> correctly.
> PAUL: The one time I went to traffic court, the thing that I noticed
that
> people said, more than anything else as the excuse was "Everyone
else was
> doing it."
> WOODHOUSE: Right. And there's an instance where you don't DO what
everybody
> else do -- does -- you DO what you're SUPPOSED to do. If you see five
> people parked in rush hour and the sign clearly says "No Parking
7-9:30" --
> it clearly states that -- if you see people parked there at 9
o'clock, don't
> park there because you see other people parked there -- still 30
minutes
> left for that lane to be clear. They teach you that when you get your
> license.
> PAUL: Right.
> WOODHOUSE: You have to read. You have to read.
>