Instead of fixing pot-holes, the City of Houston is now going after people who illegally park in their OWN driveways, according to a recent report by KHOU.
There is a crew of 30 officers from Houston’s Parking Management Department who have been assigned to patrolling neighborhoods and looking for violators. They have been given the task of looking for cars that are blocking sidewalks.
In many of Houston’s older neighborhoods, thanks to our shifting soil, the sidewalks are incredibly hard to walk on and impossible for anyone one with a wheelchair or stroller to navigate across, but the city still feels it’s important to keep these beat up old sidewalks accessible to people who generally aren’t using the sidewalks much anyway.
The department says, “it’s all rooted in safety,” and they “want to make sure that pedestrians have access to a sidewalk.”
They say if children, disabled people or any other pedestrian have to go off the sidewalk and around a car, it could cause an accident. That’s why parking enforcement officers are issuing citations if a wheelchair cannot safely get by on the sidewalk. The fine is $40.
This order comes from the same mayor who recently said she wants to eliminate car lanes and replace them with bike lanes. When it’s 105 degree out in July with a 99% humidity rating, no doubt a lot of people are going to be enjoying those bike and pedestrian lanes almost as much as they enjoy the sidewalks that they’ve blocked with their own cars.
Follow Kenneth Webster on Twitter @ProducerKen.
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