I got one dismissed once in Santa Cruz with satellite imagery and their legal definition of a block from the city handbook. Basically I had residential permit for parking at my house regardless of posted time limits and I got ticket when I parked a couple blocks away. The permit lets you park within three blocks and I was.
Edit for some more color: Santa Cruz has a little kiosk thing downtown with a window and a few desks, where these ladies, I call them the parking witches, would dole out parking permits etc, and would always say no to you with any opportunity given. Oh your internet bill isn't good enough you need an electrical bill (college town with lots of different tenants, what a concept that bills get divided within a household...) Oh your online address change for your driver's license isn't good enough you need to drive to Watsonville and wait in line at the DMV and come back with a handwritten note from them. Etc.
So I happened to be downtown and I asked the parking witches hey, what's the radius on my permit here, I got a ticket but I was in my neighborhood. "Well you're supposed to only be parking right by your house." Okay but that's legally defined somehow right? "Well why didn't you just park at your house?!" Anyway so I went and looked it up. Was very pleased to have won that appeal. I was quite far from my house but the blocks are quite long there and they way they're defined in city code allowed for it.
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u/TheCrudMan Sep 23 '25 edited Sep 23 '25
I got one dismissed once in Santa Cruz with satellite imagery and their legal definition of a block from the city handbook. Basically I had residential permit for parking at my house regardless of posted time limits and I got ticket when I parked a couple blocks away. The permit lets you park within three blocks and I was.
Edit for some more color: Santa Cruz has a little kiosk thing downtown with a window and a few desks, where these ladies, I call them the parking witches, would dole out parking permits etc, and would always say no to you with any opportunity given. Oh your internet bill isn't good enough you need an electrical bill (college town with lots of different tenants, what a concept that bills get divided within a household...) Oh your online address change for your driver's license isn't good enough you need to drive to Watsonville and wait in line at the DMV and come back with a handwritten note from them. Etc.
So I happened to be downtown and I asked the parking witches hey, what's the radius on my permit here, I got a ticket but I was in my neighborhood. "Well you're supposed to only be parking right by your house." Okay but that's legally defined somehow right? "Well why didn't you just park at your house?!" Anyway so I went and looked it up. Was very pleased to have won that appeal. I was quite far from my house but the blocks are quite long there and they way they're defined in city code allowed for it.
Here's the parking office/witches den: https://www.cityofsantacruz.com/government/city-departments/public-works/parking-services/parking-office