On-Street Parking

Now and then I'm asked why certain laws are on the books.  As far as state laws are concerned, I rarely know the reasoning of our legislators in Lincoln.  They write'em and we enforce'em.  But when I'm asked why we've adopted a specific city code, I can usually come up with a reason (or at least an excuse).  Recently, someone asked why we have a city code which limits on-street parking to a maximum of 24 hours.  Quite honestly, the best I could come up with was "because we've always limited on-street parking to a maximum of 24 hours."  Not exactly a brilliant response. 

At tomorrow night's (March 1, 2011) Papillion City Council meeting, Ordinance #1604 will be introduced.  If ultimately approved, on-street parking for up to 72 hours (except where otherwise posted) will be permitted in our fine city on or about May 1, 2011.  I hope the ordinance is adopted, and here's why.

1. The current restriction can't be found in city code.  The 24 hour parking rule was enacted by Resolution #678 in 1992.  Actions instituted by resolutions are not integrated into city code, although they have the same force of law.  Adoption of this ordinance will put parking time limits into Chapter 190 of our city code, which is accessible by all our citizens.
2. The current restriction empowers the unneighborly neighbor to become even more unneighborly.  Believe it or not, more than a few of our residents call law enforcement at the 24 hour and 1 minute mark when the person living across the street leaves his/her car parked on the street.  Usually the dispute with the person living across the street has nothing to do with parking, but our law provides an excellent avenue for anonymous revenge (and just one more reason for the responding officer to be asked "Don't you cops have anything better to do?).  If the proposed change happens, at least Mrs. or Mr. Kravitz will need to pay attention to the neighbors parking habits for 3 whole days before calling us.
3. It will give us one less reason to nag our teenagers.  I remember speaking with one frustrated resident who had an unneighborly neighbor who loved turning him in for parking too long on the street.  He explained that he had 4 high-school and college-aged kids who each had their own set of wheels.  Add those to he and his wife's vehicles, and he had to worry about the docking of 6 cars in a manner that wouldn't tick off his unneighborly neighbor.  Although he tried to enact a rotation schedule that would keep Johnny Law off his back, he said he had a tough enough time just remembering his kid's names (and tuition payment schedules).  I can relate to his lament.  Hopefully, he'll soon only need to nag his kids every 72 hours (about parking anyway).
4. Decriminalization of the weekend getaway.  Now if someone leaves town from Friday to Sunday and forgets to put their other car in the driveway, they don't need to worry about coming back to a parking ticket slapped on their windshield.

Of course, there is justification to place time limits for on-street parking.  Most noteably, we don't want to devote public space for the indefinite storage of junked or inoperable vehicles.  If Ordinance #1604 is approved, the change will put us in line with most other municipalities in the Omaha metro.  Then when I'm asked why we have a 72 hour on-street parking restriction, I can reply "because everyone else has a 72 hour on-street parking restriction."  Ah, what a brilliant response!