parking_ticket_0The winning stories get their parking tickets paid!

By: San Francisco Small Business Owners for Fairness

Have you ever parked at a meter in front of your favorite local shop, only to realize you don’t have any change? You run into the nearest corner store to get change, run back to your car and find a $65.00 parking ticket slapped on your windshield.

It happens all the time. Every car in San Francisco gets an average of four tickets a year. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that the MTA had some kind of satellite technology that knows when your meter is just about to run out. And if you feel like the situation is getting worse, you’re right.

The City has a massive budget gap and it intends to close it, in large part, by ticketing more aggressively and making tickets even more costly. You already pay taxes. You already receive less for these tax dollars than you have in the past.

The directive issued by City Hall has been made crystal clear to the people of San Francisco: close the budget gap by issuing as many parking tickets as possible. This comes at the same time as head of the MTA, Nat Ford, is quitting and taking with him a $384,000 severance package.

With such a draconian and expensive parking code being enforced, there are bound to be consequences, both real and unintended. When consumers shift their focus to soulless big box stores with huge parking lots, it means they aren’t shopping at their local hardware store, their local corner store, or even their local dry cleaner or guitar store.

The ongoing campaign to aggressively ticket San Franciscans for nothing more than simply going about their business is hurting our Mom-and-Pop stores. It’s wreaking havoc on San Francisco small businesses’ ability to survive in this economic climate. It’s affecting their bottom line – not to mention the bottom line of every San Franciscan who drives a car.

And that’s why we are taking action. We are San Francisco Small Business Owners for Fairness, a coalition of local small businesses that has decided enough is enough. And we’re doing something to help.

Every San Franciscan has an outrageous story to tell about being ticketed despite doing everything possible to make sure there was money in the meter. So SF Small Business Owners for Fairness has launched a contest to solicit your parking stories.

Share your story and get your parking ticket paid!

The best three stories get their parking tickets paid. It’s simple to enter. Just go to Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/SFSmallBusinessOwnersforFairness) or our website (www.itisonlikedonkeykong.com), “Like” us, and tell your story.

It’s time for San Franciscans everywhere to stand up and tell City Hall they’re tired of being targeted by unfair parking tickets. Our Mom-and-Pop shops are depending on it.