I love my home city, but.......

Lemme just keep this thread completely non political.

It seems a decade ago, I was issued a violation for a cracked sidewalk on a piece of real estate I own.
I never received any notice, nor did any inspector come in as they often do if its a sanitation, water, dep, whatever, they all come into the store and ask for the owner of the building.
Now, after finding out, by searching when about to sell, I have no clue what the city is talking about. I never did any repair work, the sidewalks are fine.
I dont know if someone just entered it into the computer wrong, someone misread a summons, maybe the numbers were wrong, whatever, Id never leave a hazard because I know people love to take you to court.
Ive been cited over the years for other violations,(late boiler inspection, dirty sidewalks, too much water in the toilet tanks, invalid carting sticker in the window, stuff like that) and always took care of them.
I went to the Dept of Traffic today, the people that issue the summons.
The building they are in also houses alot of other city offices.
This is NYC, one of the most populated places on earth, so trust me, its a big building.
To go in, I had to undress down to my teeshirt and socks, they left my pants on, but I had to take off my belt and the guard ran a wand over my groin like 4 times, cause the alarm set off everytime I walked through.
Seems it didnt like me, cause noone could figure it out. Im not sure what they thought I had packed in my groin, but if the guard kept searching me I was about to tell him he had to first ask me out to dinner.

After speaking to 3 people on the phone yesterday, seems I got wrong info, and had to go back home and get more paperwork together, and come back.
So I did, and went through the unfriendly metal detector, but this time I was fine. And I need to sit when I put on my sneakers, and the only bench had 3 450 lb women on them, so I had to sit on a staircase and get dressed again.
Kudos to whomever made that wooden bench, they never would have imagined the stress those wooden legs would have to take.

Suprisingly, where I went was pretty empty, and it only took me 25 minutes and a credit card to pay for someone to come down and inspect the sidewalk again, the only way to clear a violation, even if it isnt mine. The city doesnt care.
Going back to my car, was the real kicker of the day for me.
The sidewalk for this building was in horrendous shape. Enough trip hazards to trip up even the most agile and balanced person. And there were patches of ice all over. The municipal lot, in back, some of the stairs were falling apart and the concrete under some metal stair treads, were crumbling and one wrong step could spell disaster to anyone if not repaired soon.
And they gave me a violation for a cracked sidewalk which I never had. Not at least since Ive been the owner.
I love my city.



(I know this is non woodworking related, Im just sharing)

and one more thing, the city employees were rather friendly, a bit confused it seemed, but polite and moved me along so I could get out of there.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I've worked for the government for over 20 years and cringe when I hear stories like this. My guess is that somewhere along the line an ordinance, law, etc. gets passed, then a regulation is written to interpret said ordinance/law and then more years pass and various middle managers (like me ) become involved in its implementation and the end result is a lousy situation. My hunch is that the vast majority of interactions the city is involved with are handled properly but no doubt mistakes are made.

As John Denver said THANK GOD I'M A COUNTRY BOY

Kinda reminds me of the time the pastor of the church I went to asked me to do a walk through with the city inspector for a new multi purpose building we had built. We were on the roof when the inspector opened the box up for a fused disconnect for one of the AC units. He looked at the box and said "that ain't right I'm gonna make them change those fuses". I said "whats wrong with em" and he said "it say right here the fuse holder is rated for 50 amps and they only put 30 amp fuses in". When I explained to him that the fuse rating was based on the size of the load not the MAX rating of the hold and so long as the fuses were at or under the rating of the holder it was ok. To which he replied "Oh, is that how that works"

The worst part is that the city needs no proof on the violation.
Its on record, no matter what.
some clerk might have a 6 as a 5, or put a 12 instead of a 22, some time ago, maybe a decade ago, and it just sits in the computer system until something like this comes up.

just call it what it is allen, a legal shakedown....

I don't know why stories like that amaze me. You hear the horror stories about government ineptitude all the time.

Jay Caughron said:

As John Denver said THANK GOD I'M A COUNTRY BOY

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Just what I was thinking Jay.

Too much water in the toilet! Oh my gosh

I guess it could be worse Allen. They could be like the IRS and charge interest and penalties.

Ive dealt with small middle of nowhere municipalities also in very, very rural areas, not so sure theres much difference, all villages and towns have their own set of rules.

Yeah John, I was shocked when I had to call the water dept(DEP) because I thought the meter they installed on my property was leaking or misreading.
The inspector immediately asked access to apartments and I was issued a summons because 2 toilets were approx 2 inches too high in tank and that is a waste of water. I had the handyman come in immediately and put in new floats.
While I can see where it would be a waste of water, the city offers shower caps for fire hydrants that are turned on and left on 24 hours a day for weeks at time and that doesnt seem to disturb the DEP. I personally have reported open hydrants only to drive to work the following morning and see noone shut them off so the shower caps ran overnight and all morning without a kid in sight.
Theres alot of things Im not quite sure make sense in big cities, but theres only so much anyone can do. You have to be very strong to fight and fight, and those days have passed for me.

Thats why I want to live at 40th and Plum

40 miles Plum out in the stick.

I am just no good in the city big or small I hate em all

Yes Allen, bureaucracy is alive and well even in rural Tennessee. When I went to start the permit process to build the lady at the counter asked me if I had my driveway permit. I said driveway permit? Yea, she said we now require a driveway permit. I have the honor of being the second person in the county to be required to get one. They asked me how long the driveway was. When I told them about 400' then they had to come out and make sure I could put it where I wanted it to go.

The guy that came out and looked was really nice. I asked what the deal was with the permit. He told me it was because people would put them in on a step grade and it would wash down into the highway. Then the highway dept. would have to go and clean it up.

Ditto on the shake down. Sorry for your trouble.

I had an incident where I was issued a citation by a city I had only heard of and certainly never visited. Way I found out was receiving a letter stating that an arrest warrant had been issued for me for failure to pay this fine.

I called the city in question and asked for a copy of the citation. After quite the run around and me getting steamed because I was now paying for a long distance phone call, they read the citation to me over the phone. Wrong car, right license plate number. So I tell them to clear my record and void the citation. They said sure, looks like it's our mistake.

Sounds O.K. but I keep getting the arrest warrant letters so I call them again and explain how I had 200+ witnesses as to my whereabouts and car on the day in question as I was at a conference that whole day and 200 miles away from their city.

I finally called their city attorney and threatened them with a lawsuit should I get arrested because of their erroneous warrant. That got their attention and the letters stopped coming. I heard later that there was a scam going on where the city would issue the letters and most people would just pay the fine to avoid the hassle.

Jay Caughron said:

As John Denver said THANK GOD I'M A COUNTRY BOY

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That is not always the case. Its 40 miles out my back door to the next house, I'd call that country, and there is just as much red tape here as anywhere.

I just don't have to deal with the city when I take care of it. 30 miles is 30 minutes here.

haha larry, village laws where I live state there must be a minimum of 25 feet from the back of my building line to the rear property line, that leaves 50 feet between homes in our backyards here, We got you beat by 10 feet.




Oh wait, you said miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have a rule has to be 30 cm from your building to the property line......


Our building on the right


Our building is on the bottom of this pic, the neighbour on the top.....

Jay Caughron said:

Thats why I want to live at 40th and Plum

40 miles Plum out in the stick.

I am just no good in the city big or small I hate em all

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I'm kinda like you Jay, when we were looking for property here in east TN, we looked first up in the Coker Creek neighborhood... that's about 15 miles up the mountain from where I am now... the house I really liked was an "A" frame that sat way up in the woods... the Realtor took us there in a 4 wheel drive vehicle and had a hard time navigating the roads.... I drive a city vehicle... an Avalon.. so I decided probably would either have to get a Jeep, a pack mule or hike in from somewhere down the road... as much as I liked the place, it wasn't going to be practical for us... (Plus the wife nixed the place without even getting out of the Realtor's vehicle.)

Today, in the mail, I got an apology letter from the City of Oakland (CA) indicating that they are dropping a citation against us that they determined to not be valid.

I think I related the story before, but supposedly Brent and I own a red Porsche and got a ticket for it in CA (mind you we live in NV) and have no reason to ever go to that city.

They sent letters for over a year and I kept writing them, trying to call (only ever got answering machines and they never called back). All I wanted was proof that I owned a red Porsche and I even volunteered for them to confisicate it and sell it for the ticket proceeds

Well finally they turned it over to a collection agency. Brent kept saying to just pay it to get rid of it. I refused. I finally called the collection agency and actually got to talk to a live person.

Bottom line, the issuing officer wrote the license down incorrectly and it was our bass boat trailer license. I finally convinced the lady that a red Porsche is not a blue bass boat. She saw my point and got back with Oakland and now another three months later, we are absolved.

What a pain. I bet it cost them way more than the $70 fine to take it this far.

dont you just love it when yu have to proof your innocent,, and then if it is there mistake they can get off with a sorry and be done with it but if we say sorry we pay the dues as well..