I’m kind of stealing a story from my Dad. I have overheard numerous cyclical, catch-22 conversations between him and the city where he lives (kept pseudo-anonymous for his own safety), regarding the gutters in front of his house- this is a story about the south, well, so south that when they talk about the Bay, they’re talking about an entirely different Bay.

Turns out that in other cities, unlike ours, they don’t have those pesky signs saying “street cleaning Tues/Thurs”, so, when the machines come by and there are cars, they avoid the gutter entirely, and no ticketing! Problem is if this gutter is in front of your house. In his situation, cars have been mal-parked for about a year on street cleaning days, resulting in mildewy, mosquito-breading puddles in the gutter. Dad offers to write his own signs, to notify the businesses in the area– ironically city run business (police, fire)– that this side of the street is a no parking zone Tues/Thurs, but no, they won’t let him. He offers to powerwash them himself, no, due to insurance and liability issues. The final effective method is for him to talk to his friend the Mayor, who, in a stop-gap measure, has the cleaners come out right away, but still, no resolution. Not so different from how things work in our city…