On Saturday, May 24, I received a parking violation for parking my truck in the wrong direction in front of my house. Not only did I get a ticket, but two of my neighbors got tickets also. I looked up the number that was on the ticket, MMC 11-08-040 on the city of Marysville Web site — but couldn’t find mention of this violation.

I find it odd that my neighbors and me got tickets for this considering I have lived here for 10 years and my neighbor next door over 20 years (and consistently parks this way). Plus our house is on the corner — the street where I parked is only two blocks long and the other street is one block long. We have very little traffic coming through and it doesn’t present a danger. I could understand getting a ticket if it was on a busy road like 88th, because that would be a dangerous situation. I rarely park in the front of my house since I have a garage and a carport in my backyard. I had to move my truck to the front because I had a company come to remove some junk and they needed space for their truck and this only took a couple hours. So it was like I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. But still, it’s the area in front of my house.

When I looked down the street I could see at least nine cars parked the wrong way (just in one block) and these cars are in the city limits — did all of these cars get tickets? The other block down from us and also the block around the corner are in the county, and a lot of them do it.

I guess my complaint with this is that it almost seems unethical because people have been doing this for many years. And then out of the blue, they’re getting tickets. If the law has changed, or the law is going to be enforced, then I think it would be appropriate to give people a warning that it’s a violation and future violations will receive tickets. I remember a couple years ago our neighbor got a ticket for parking on the sidewalk. But his daughter was also parked opposite of traffic — so why didn’t she also get a ticket for that? She only got a ticket for parking on the sidewalk.

Come to think of it, I have seen a number of officers come through this neighborhood and there have been plenty of cars parked the wrong way. When we moved in the neighborhood the houses were mainly occupied by the person who owned the house. Now there’s quite a few renters and they seem to be doing things that bring the police out. It seems with three or four police cars showing up and with people standing on the street watching what’s happening — one of the officers would have mentioned that cars are parked the wrong way.

So my complaint and concern, not just for me but for all the people in this neighborhood, is why are we suddenly getting tickets for parking in front of our own houses? If this is a way for the city to get more money — it’s the wrong way to go about it. As a tax-paying citizen it would be a great civic duty of the city to warn us first and after about a month of that then start your ticket routine. Also put it in writing on your Internet site so all can see it so there won’t be any confusion and letters from frustrated people like me.

Jerome Marable