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Saturday, July 27, 2013

The War Against Illegal Tow-Away Construction Zone Signs (Champion Cleaning)

Hello assholes!
The saga continues.  Get yourself up to speed by reading my first blog entry about this, and the second one.

On Friday morning, I decided to make a call to San Francisco 311 for an update.  The answer I got back was the same old thing: They took my report, passed it on to Department of Public Works, and that was it.  I asked the operator to transfer me to the DPW and I spoke with a female staff member on the phone.  I explained the situation to her, provided my 311 case number, and said an inspector will be investigating it three days.

Three days?  I told the lady the construction signs and crew will be long gone within 48 hours.  I tried to put some pressure on her to get the shit done, I also asked her what DPW will do if Champion Cleaning calls for a tow truck when they failed to provide a minimum of 72 hours notice of posting the signs.  She couldn't answer.

It seems every time I call the city, many either don't give a damn, don't want to be helpful, or just pass the buck onto some other department.  I work for the State of California, but I don't treat people like crap; I treat them nicely as best as I can, and make sure if they contacted me by accident, I put them back on the right path to the right people who can answer their questions.


On Saturday (today), I went out in the morning and on the ride back on the 6-Parnassus, I noticed a white van parked in the middle of the block on 9th Avenue.  I decided to hop-off the bus and take a look around.  Other than the van in the middle accessing the sewer opening, I saw one of their employees sitting on someone's property and having a smoke break.

Now I'm wondering if any cars got towed or not.  Since it's after 5PM and the signs are now expired, parking is now restored.  But if they try to pull another fast one and throw some more tow signs without advance notice, I'll be hounding DPW again.

As for DPW, I'll be calling them again on Monday for an update.

2 comments:

Mike R said...

Akit, you are a pain in the ass! And the city needs more people like you. This city will never solve its transportation and parking issues until people with pragmatic concerns are as vocal as those with ideological concerns.

Keep up the good fight.

Anonymous said...

I guess another place to complain would be your district supervisor? What about the 502-386-5611 number that the Champion Cleaning so helpfully provided? They also have an email contact on their website - hunter@championcleaningco.com
(Admittedly a long shot since they are in Kentucky). On the other hand nobody likes bad publicity.

It's a vexing run around you describe - the Construction Zone is done in the name of SFPD, but they won't touch it.

Captain Lum at the Taraval Station has a reputation for being approachable - he might be a good one to ask about criminal enforcement.

Generally, it seems that PG&E (when they aren't blowing things up) have the run of this city - digging up a block and then digging it up again a few years later. And of course, we pay for it with our monthly bills.

Keep up the good work!