San Francisco residents say they're getting tickets for parking in their own driveways
According to the SFMTA, they're not specifically cracking down or targeting any specific infraction. Instead, they are simply responding to the 311 complaints.
MISSION DISTRICT, Calif. — For the last two months, several Mission District neighborhoods say they've been getting a lot of unwanted visits -- and tickets -- from parking enforcement officers.
Those officers say they're responding to parking complaints filed on the city's 311 system, and some residents are convinced someone is gaming the system and costing them hundreds of dollars.
Larry Reed discovered a citation on the front window of his car Monday.
“One-hundred-and-eight dollars for parking on my driveway,” he said.
The complaint was filed for Reed’s car being parked on the sidewalk.
But what’s frustrating him, and some of his neighbors, is that after years without issue, someone is suddenly calling the infractions in -- a lot.
"We don't know what the deal is. It's just, when we park on the driveway, we get a notice,” said Yolanda Francisco of San Francisco.” It's been reported to 311 multiple times. But one picture, multiple times."
Yolanda's son-in-law said he started noticing an interesting pattern about the 311 complaints after he also recently got a citation.
"So, I don't know when these photos were taken, but somebody obviously has a collection of these and is just re-posting them,” said David Chen of San Francisco.
It seems like whoever is submitting the complaints also etched extra information onto some of the photos.
Chen was there when his neighbor Larry Reed found his citation.
"There's like 10 feet of open space. It's not causing a problem for anyone with accessibility issues,” he said. “It's literally somebody making themselves feel good by submitting it, trolling us, getting us tickets."
According to the SFMTA, they're not specifically cracking down or targeting any specific infraction. Instead, they are simply responding to the 311 complaints.
As for the neighbors, no one is happy about the sudden flood of 311 complaints.
"The thing is, it's never happened until this year. So it seems to be somebody who's newly moved in,” Reed said.
He added that he has even posted a letter on some of the neighborhood light posts politely asking whomever is making the 311 complaints, to simply call him instead and he'll gladly move his car.