Chesbro's Abandoned Auto Bill

Here's one bill by State Senator, Wes Chesbro, I have a difficult time arguing with: His bill would allow counties to raise local vehicle fees by one dollar to help pay for abandoned vehicle abatement programs. It's left up to the individual counties to decide whether to raise the fee but I think we all know how our board of supervisors would vote. Don't we?

The one problem I have with this idea is that our supervisors would likely raise the fee whether it was needed or not. And who's to say if they might siphon off the money raised for more nefarious purposes?

But abandoned vehicles are one of my pet peeves. I'd really like to see something done to make the last owner of an abandoned vehicle be held more responsible rather than taking a dollar from everyone. What the heck do you do, though?

You sell a car to someone and go fill out the Certificate of Non- Responsibility (CNR), or whatever that thing's called, at the DMV. What if the guy you sold it to never registers it in his name? Then the car gets found abandoned years later and they end up coming after you and you thought you got rid of the car. It happens. I know someone it happened to.

Or, along the same line: What if someone wanted to dump a car, and goes to the DMV and fills out a CNR falsely saying he sold the car to someone and then dumps the car? How could you prove he never sold the car and just dumped it. No easy answer to solving the problem from that angle.

Libertarian though I may be, I can't help but wonder if it might help to nip the problem in the bud by getting rid of the cars before they're abandoned? You know how the cycle starts, you see it all around town:

Someone has a car that might or might not have a problem. For whatever reason it ends up sitting out on the street or in some part of their yard or driveway. It ends up sitting there for weeks, months, then years. Eventually it becomes junk, but the owner never feels like dealing with the hassle of taking the car to the auto wreckers. Eventually, the car ends up abandoned somewhere, perhaps in the same location it was left in and the owners have long since moved.

I was wondering (hold your sounds of astonishment) if they ought to come up with some ordinance on how long a car could be stored somewhere without being moved, although I'm sure they probably already have something along that line in effect now?

So, if a car has been sitting in the front yard of a house for six months, the tires have gone flat and it's obviously not going to be moved, the owner of the car (or the property) has to take it to the junkyard or the city or county will take care of it and charge the owner for it. That still leaves the problem of establishing the true owner of the car, though, which I guess is why we have this mess to begin with.

I hesitate to propose ideas like that since they'll likely only result in more bureaucratic hassle for all of us and we don't want anymore hassles with government, do we? Nonetheless, I wonder if we're doing all we can do with the problem now or if there's something more that needs to be done? Any ideas out there?

Parking & Abandoned Vehicles

A gal living near Carson Park made the following complaint/ comment on the Eureka Nextdoor Neighorhood e-mail list:

"I am extremely frustrated at the moment. I know our police force does a good job. However, the fact that we have so many crime riddled neighborhoods, ours specifically , and yet a vehicle that hasn't been moved in 3 days received ticket 2 times in one week? Now, I get it. I know there are rules about unregistered vehicles on the roadway. However, I live on the corner of F and dollison and I don't feel that the Hyundai Santa Fe that our son parked there require so much policing. The fact of the matter is, we are doing everything we can to get this immobile unregistered vehicle off of our corner..."

She went on some more after that. My first comment was I wasn't sure what the problem was. As it turns out, sounds like the vehicle is unregistered and immobile. Didn't catch that the first time, but I still wonder what the problem is. How hard can it be to move a vehicle onto your own property where you don't have to worry about it being tagged?

I haven't seen her particular location, so maybe they can't just push it into their garage or driveway. I wonder though, if it's that big a problem, if they should even bother trying to keep the vehicle? It's neither working or registered and the owner seems to be a son who is out of state. Maybe they should just have the vehicle hauled to John's Auto Wreckers out on Jacob's Avenue?

For some reason some people just won't let cars go. I can't help but wonder if this is one of those cases. I've seen it time and again in Eureka. Cars just sitting there, sometimes for years, when there's no reasonable expectation of the car being driven again.

I know of one car that's been sitting in a carport for over 23 years. I know that because I used to work there and the car was there- albeit looking better than it is now- way back then. Now, there it sits and looks yucky, but it's in her carport so nothing can be done in the normal course of things.

Bumped into another car in a driveway not too far from that car. An old station wagon that had obviously been there for some time. Long enough that the windows had so much mold and mildew on them you couldn't see inside the car. Flat tires, the whole nine yards you get with abandoned cars. This was in the lady's driveway so, again, not much can be done. I was so grossed out by the car I didn't even bother giving the lady a bid on the job I was there to check out.

This happens all the time and I'm not sure why people insist on hanging on to cars like that. In the case of the gal who complained on that e-mail list, my suggestion to her was to let EPD haul it off for free. If you haven't even the wherewithal to pay $10 for a non- operation fee, is the car really worth the hassle to you?

As far as cars parked on private property as I cited above, I'm not sure what to think. I'm sure you could get the city to take action. Joel Mielke wrote something about the city charter not allowing things that could endanger property values. I suppose that's good, but I don't like bothering people over how they run their own affairs.

I was wondering if some of these cars could be disposed of by simply asking the people who own them if they'd have any objection to the car being hauled off at no charge? About the only problem with that is I hate everyone else having to pay for the car owner's lack of personal responsibility. But, we might be surprised at how many people would jump at an offer like that, and maybe even more surprised at the number that refuse. 

It still might be worth a try.

Eureka Getting Serious About Stored Cars?

I'm curious what "stepped up enforcement" refers to when referring to Eureka's vehicle abatement program? So far, from my own personal experience, they handle it pretty well. While vehicles aren't supposed to be parked anywhere for over 72 hours, I've gotten the impression they let it go if they know the car is alongside the owner's property, isn't an eyesore and actually goes somewhere every now and then.

I had the vehicle abatement guy stop by my house after my trailer got wrecked and I had the trailer parked on the Trinity Street side of the house for a few weeks awaiting disposal. The guy, whose name escapes me now (but it's not the one listed in the E/R article), just asked if the trailer belonged to me. I told him it did and he left after telling me the city would actually haul it off for free if I'd like. I got rid of it on my own.

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Storing vehicles on the streets is one of my pet peeves. That's one reason I took my old Ford Ranger pick- up to the auto wreckers right after I bought the truck I drive now. I was thinking I didn't really have to get rid of it. Nothing wrong with having two trucks, except I would have to pay for the extra insurance.

But the main reason I got rid of it quick is I knew if I parked it on the side of the house it would likely end up just sitting there and slowly deteriorate as we so often see with permanently parked cars. I wouldn't want someone else doing that and so I shouldn't do that myself. I drove it down the auto wreckers on Jacob's Avenue in Eureka. Luckily, they took the truck without charging me.

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Some people don't do that, though. I got on the late Tish Wilburn's bad side a while back when she was running for city council. I told her she needed to do something about her old junk car that seemed to be permanently parked at one place or another on her street. She wouldn't want someone bringing that up when she's campaigning.

She got a bit irked with me and explained that it wasn't her car anymore. She'd given it to some guy who, according to her, owned something like 30 other cars others had given him and he had them parked all over town.

Now why the hell would someone go around parking cars all over the place just to own them? To add insult to injury, the guy finally seemed to settle on parking Tish's old car out in front of some apartments I did work at. Parking was tough enough there as it was. With Tish's car parked there semi- permanently, one less parking space was available.

I resigned myself to turn the car in to vehicle abatement. I wrote down the license number and details and, as so often happens, dropped the ball.

I did notice that the car's registration expired the next month and figured if I came back after the license expired and he hadn't renewed it, it would be even easier to have it hauled off. Unfortunately, when I returned in August the guy had actually renewed the registration although the car hadn't been moved in maybe six months.

Shortly thereafter, I happened to see the vehicle abatement guy driving around not far from Tish's old house and the junk car. After a few blocks I got his attention and he stopped. I told him the situation and he said, regardless of the registration status, the vehicle could be hauled if parked for more than 72 hours.

He said he'd go check it out. The next time I went back to those apartments the car was gone. Haven't seen it since. Wonder if it got towed?

*******

The next door neighbor (well... across the street neighbor), Jenny, was concerned about the car parked next to my house near the corner, on Trinity Street. I explained to her that it belonged to one of the guys staying at the half- way house across the street, but I had no idea why he'd parked it there. That seemed to alleviate her concerns for the time being.

It's been sitting there for weeks now and I haven't seen the guy. I'm wondering if he moved and left his car here? Probably have to have vehicle abatement check that one out one of these days if they don't find it on their own. I actually prefer people parking on the Trinity Street side of my house than out front or across the street, but not if he's just going to leave it there.

*****

Next question: What do you do about all the abandoned vehicles in people's yards?

"Stepped Up Enforcement" Here?

Last month I commented on the City of Eureka's plan to "step up enforcement" of their abandoned vehicle abatement program. I was wondering just what "stepped up" meant, as I think they handle the issue fairly well now, from what I've seen.

Well, what goes around comes around. It must be because I turned in the abandoned vehicle along the Trinity Street side of my house a while back. They came and picked it up the other night. Now they're after me.

After sitting in my house for days on end because of the rain I went outside today to try get some work done. I go down to load my mower in my trailer and, lo and behold, there's a yellow sticker on the back of it with a notice it's been sitting there too long (since the last day I worked) and might be subject to removal under vehicle abatement.

I've said before abandoned vehicles are one of my pet peeves. I also worried about how this supposed "stepped up enforcement" would work and how far it would go. Well, here's some indication of what the future might hold.

Be careful what you wish for. You might just get it.

The Freddy Gets Flagged

I made a comment on that Nextdoor Neighborhood e-mail list yesterday that someone flagged as being inappropriate. My comment??? Yes, my comment. How can this be? Except, yes, I did go a bit far at the end of it. At least for the purposes of that list.

They'd been discussing abandoned or improperly parked vehicle policy as per my last post here. I was really surprised at the number of people who said EPD was a bit aggressive with their abatement policies. They cited cars parked that nobody complained about, yet EPD would tag them and come back again for the same car. I replied that my experience has been pretty positive with one slight exception.

I've reported four or five cars over the last few years. One parked next to my house was eventually towed. The others were gone next time I was in the area or had been moved. No problems with that, at least on my end.

I once had the abatement officer come by my house and ask about my smashed trailer that had been sitting on Trinity Street for a few days- not so much the time, but the condition of the trailer which I think got his attention. He asked if the trailer was mine. I told him it was. He said that was all he needed to know and left before I could even explain. He never came back.

The last incident I feel was something not so nice but not much of a deal, and that's where my comment aggravated at least a couple people.

I came out to load up my truck and trailer one morning to find one of those warning tags on the back of my trailer. This was shortly after former EPD Chief, Garr Nielsen, announced his crackdown on derelict and illegally parked cars. I felt this was an obvious provocation by someone within EPD. 

The truck and trailer in no way met the definition of vehicles under that abatement ordinance. Cops drive up and down the street all the time and see that truck and trailer. They know it was regularly used. My feeling at the time- and it hasn't changed- was they tagged the trailer to get me pissed off at Nielsen over his more aggressive approach to abandoned and illegally parked cars. 

I don't know if they only tagged me, being a famous blogger, in an attempt to get me to join their efforts against Nielsen, or if I was just one of many who were tagged. If there were more than me I would think we would have heard of it. Either way, I'm convinced it was a targeted attack, political in nature. In fairness to them- although it does reinforce my feelings- they never hassled me over that trailer again.

I mentioned those suspicions on my post on the Nextdoor list. Former blogger, Joel Mielke, pointed out the list shouldn't be used for unfounded allegations like that. I agreed and apologized. I figured that was the end of it. Then, some hours later, I get notice that someone flagged my post as inappropriate and that notice had been sent to all neighborhood "Leads" (bosses) and they could remove the comment if they see fit. It's still there as of this morning.

I'm just wondering who flagged it, not that it matters that much. My guess is a certain representative of EPD that is on the list and has given some useful comments and tips. Hey, just curious.