Raise the Hammer

I am so sorry about your brother it must have been a day beyond description of grief followed by many more. Everyone by a certain point in life looses someone they love. No human being would wish that on another.

I hope you are a motorist on occasion and that you can see the world from that perspective too. For example where I live; just a few doors away there is a T intersection. Street parking close to the intersection means I have to creep through the pedestrian walk because I can't see traffic in either direction due to the parked cars. It would be dangerous NOT to do so. Yes I have had some dirty looks from pedestrians on occasion who expect to use the crossing immediately regardless of my safe driving habits. I understand that. What I do not understand is this. Bylaw hands out some really shitty tickets. I have had one for an expired meter that still had a few minutes left on it. Just lazy sleazy crap really; where some lard ass bylaw creep thought they would take a short cut instead of looking for a real infraction. I can also show you bylaw traps in the city. My personal favorite is one outside of a medical building located at the corner of Parkdale Ave & Central Ave. There is not a valid reason in the universe (I have a list of laughable ones provided by bylaw)where you will get a $50 ticket literally in minutes. As astounding or outrageous as this sounds this site is haunted like no other. Keep in mind this is a multi story medical building. There are sick people in and out of that building in droves all day. It is able to operate despite having 3 public parking spaces. The smell of weakness was sensed and it has been a gold mine for our fair city ever since. You have to see the stretch of Central Ave yourself to see that this was engineered it was no mere "lucky" immoral accident which has the city exploiting the ill, no this was planned. Not only does the building lack sufficient parking the area especially Central Avenue has restricted (permit) parking. Clearly bylaw is not here to enforce and fine on a tough but fair and rational basis. Obviously they are there to provide a revenue stream even if they have to assist in arranging the infraction. The reason I mention all this is that Hamilton has always had a bylaw prohibiting not just parking but even stopping "Within an intersection or crosswalk, or within six (6) metres [20 ft.] of a crosswalk, whether said crosswalk is marked or not." It is never enforced, I have even made complaints and it is still not enforced. So here we have an enforcement issue which affects the safety of both pedestrians and motorists disregarded in favor of fraudulent behavior and manufactured set ups. Think about it; it is not even difficult to enforce, it is so easy to find violations. If our esteemed parking bylaw enforcement department ever gets bored and wants to actually work instead of falsely ticket vehicles and engage in corrupt practices it could be a force in reducing needless tragedy.