I was in a hurry running errands yesterday afternoon. I drove up to one of my stops on Mission and noticed an available parking meter right in front of the store. SWEET! It had one of those temporary no parking construction signs posted on it and the time duration was from 6am – 4pm. Well it’s 4:15 I’m good, so I slid a quarter in the meter and strolled into the store.
After 10 or 15 minutes in the store I come out to find that my car had been towed and they were currently working on the third one back. When I asked the DPT guy why they towed the car since the sign clearly says that it’s okay to park here after 4pm, he grinned and pointed to the permanent sign and said “not according to that one”. This one stated ‘no parking 3pm-6pm’. DAMN IT!
Yes I was a bit miffed, but this is really my fault. So I began my walk down to City Tow and some how got stuck sitting there for an extra 30 minutes waiting for them to process my car. This is when I realized how big a business this operation really is. My cost for the tow was $118, plus a CSSA? fee of $50 and another $50 for the DPT parking ticket. In the time I sat there a total of 23 people came in with what I could see as the same minimal fees. That’s roughly $5200 in a matter of 30 minutes. I am guessing this is a pretty busy time of day for them since people are just realizing as they come out of work that their cars are missing, and streets like Mission open up the third/parking lane for rush hour traffic. But this still amazes me.
Where does this money go? Some of it goes to City Tow and some to the DPT. But, how much of this money is put back into San Francisco?
I will be sure to post what I find…