This Firebird is a regular downtown, always parked at a meter and a (presumed) steady contributor to Eugene’s city coffers. But maybe they’ve been accumulating too many unpaid tickets, because his or her unlucky number has just come up. Time to take some action; old cars deserve better than this.
Maybe I should start a lobbying camp to have Eugene be officially be declared “The Curbside Classic Capital of the World“, and exempt all cars more than 25 years old from having to pay parking meters. They certainly contribute to the atmosphere downtown, and the more the better. It could be the basis of a whole tourist advertising campaign. You think I have a shot at convincing the city fathers and mothers (or is it the city nannies)?
I’m surprised and impressed that they managed to get a boot on those deep-dish rims.
It should not be exempt because of those ghastly wheels. Where are the Rally IIs? Let it be towed.
And that’s why James Rockford lived in California.
Good idea. Go for it! Lots of us auto enthusiasts here in Europe thinks that the main attraction in the North-Americas are the cars. But as illustrated the squared headed folks are behaving the same way on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. And here’s a little story of mine about it. Once I had brought back my former 1981 Custom Cruiser from the freshly issued MOT but I have had left my reg. plates at the admin office for replacement.
I had decided to got rid of the existing euro-spec reg.plates to the favor of the squared ones which fits better an Olds (as it isn’t an average euro model). I got parked the Olds
at my usual parking place and within 3 hours an official warning had been left on the windshield that “no parking allowed on public places without reg.plates as I could be fined etc., etc.”. As I had to wait 3 days for the new pair of plates…I had simply ignored that warning. Few years later the controlers went too far. One afternoon the car had disappeared from the parking lot. A neighbour came up to me and told that it had not been stolen. The clamping company simply lifted it up and took it away. As that lad once had been a landlord in our former appartment building, he added that the official take away action was illegal because the space that we all parked our cars is a legal
parking space BUT somebody a decade earlier had stole the tarmakadam!!! As a proof he showed me the copy of the construction plan. So I went to the clamping company yard and asked my car back without paying fine. The officer laughed at me. Then I told him the facts about their illegal action and had showed him the official copy of the parking lot construction plan with comments that they would have catch the stealer who had stole the tarmakadam rather than to molest the citizens who uses the muddy parking lot legaly. That had happened after 4 years of undisturbed use of the existing muddy/dusty parking lot. Then he stoped laughing on me immediately…and gave me back my car keyes without any comments. No fine had been posted to me as weel. Soon after this disgusting incident the tarmakadam was officially laid down.
I love that car! It’s always parked by Red Apple market. It’s sad to see a city parking enforcer put a boot on it. A cordless disc grinder would be a great thing to keep inside the trunk.
I wish Eugene was the curbside classic capitol but it’s likely that a Cuban city would be a better candidate.
Yup! I see it out front of Red Apple all the time. The owner lives in it and has been banned from the store.
Let’s just do away with parking fees. We have to many taxes.
+1
@$$hats who don’t pay their parking meters or tags _deserve_ to get booted & towed ! .
FWIW , if you’re willing , it’s usually not terribly difficult to undo the lug nuts one by one and leave the boot and wheel behind as you drive off on the spare….
-Nate
I was coming out of the Flamingo club in Blackpool when a girl’s car had been clamped.She hadn’t the money to pay for it at 3 am on a Sunday.Her girlfriend’s Dad came back with an angle grinder and cut it away after the bouncers let him use their electricity from the club.
Even though it would be over 25 years old, would a 1962 Ford Fairlane with a dented hood have gotten the same sympathy?
I’m surprised the City Peon Raise Generation Division…uh, I mean Enforcement Dept. booted this car. I mean, it’s Eugene. I assumed there would be a note from the city saying, “Like, man, that’s not cool. Please move your car dude.” 😉
It would be super cool, but how do you get your average municipality to give up any source of income, no matter how small? Then, of course, Eugene would be overrun with squatters from all over with their jalopies. Wait a minute, that might be great!
Actually, maybe the owner applied it as a theft-deterrent measure – not as convenient as an alarm, but far more visible…!
Well, if no one else wants it, I’ll take it!
There was a guy in PA that had for his tag “NO TAG” he parked illegaly in Baltimore all the time. he amassed a huge number of tickets. They finally realized that NO TAG was his tag. They booted his car and he paid the fines.
The small town I grew up in finally did away with parking meters a few years ago. The city council (belatedly) realized that the meters were a big reason why folks rarely shopped downtown. Unfortunately, by the time the meters went away, so did most of the businesses and customers.
Other small towns in the county still keep their meters but the daily revenues must be miniscule.
For cars that are parked in a city “day in and day out” for long periods, more cities would be wise to institute parking permits.
A picture of life if jpc ruled the world. “First, let’s round up and kill all of the F bodies.”
I kid. I recall that in the 20s, meters were first installed to ration scarce parking and to keep folks from hogging a spot for all day or longer. The revenue was a side benefit.
Back in the late 80’s a co-worker talked a lot about the car he used to have. He had kept a “parking pass” in the glove box and for three years never paid for metered parking and never got ticketed for illegal parking. One day a sharp enforcement officer noticed expired tags and checked the date on the ticket under the wiper and found it to be over three years old and that’s when the car got impounded. It was a good thing he lost the car because he had a baseline level of drunk/stoned or hungover/need to get stoned that he maintained.
I would have liked to have seen that car. It was a ’75 Maverick with a 350 small block chev under the hood.
Gotta love those louvers.