A Little Warning, Please

I am writing on behalf of the hundreds of people (maybe not hundreds, but a whole lot), that on Tuesday afternoon, walked out of their downtown homes and classes and art galleries and places of business towards their cars only to find that their cars had been abducted (towed) for a supposed street-cleaning extravaganza.

Apparently, the City had put up temporary signs (although I personally never saw one) on Monday night indicating that all street parking around Gratz Park was a tow-away zone on Tuesday for a massive street-sweep operation. So when I woke up and left my Market Street apartment in a swift stride to make my morning class at Transy, I had no idea that upon returning, my car would be gone.

I had to go to the towing company, pay the sixty dollars to get my car, and, find that the police, just to be that much more of a bitch about the whole thing, had also left me with a fifteen dollar parking ticket. I mean, come on. Was that really necessary?

The street doesn't look any cleaner than it did on Monday, and a bunch of unsuspecting college students and downtowners had to fork over sixty dollars (which, in college terms is about a million dollars) just to get our own vehicles. And park them legally exactly where they had been before. Yes, I understand that they broke no laws in their quasi-surprise attack, but is a little bit more/better warning too much to ask?

Erin Grace