Anonymous wrote:There's currently a bit of a furor over this in the WW area, on the neighborhood email list. Apparently a police officer ticketed all the illegally-parked cars that were parked just by the school (back driveway by the field) earlier this week. A parent got mad and said it was probably some nearby neighbor who called the cops, this is so unjust, etc. They did acknowledge their kid was parked in a no parking zone, at least.
I drove by the other day to check it out. No parking signs are clearly marked, and people are parking haphazardly. It would be a tight squeeze for a hook and ladder fire truck to make it through that, especially in a rush. I think the no parking signs in that area are justified -- it's a tight squeeze.
As for within the neighborhood itself, that's not unique to Whitman -- you'll find that outside every high school I'd say.
These kids don't all _need_ to drive to school. The school provides school bus transportation, and there is a Ride-On bus stop directly in front of the school. Yes, there are more people who want permits than they have spaces, but they should just auction them off or use a lottery process.
I am sure it was a neighbor because I don't think that is an area that is regularly patrolled. There would be no reason students couldn't park in an orderly fashion on streets near the front of the school, but it isn't allowed either. The Ride On only services part of the area from which students are drawn from and comes infrequently enough that it might not work time was. But for people far enough for the school bus, that's certainly an option.
Auctioning spots would greatly favor wealthy students so I can't imagine that would be considered.