Jacksonville council looks to crack down on backed-in cars

[marksjax]

I guess I will get cited and see the city in court as there is no way anyone is gonna tell me I can only park in a certain direction.
Ain't gonna happen.

[Ajax]

I agree with you. If it's a junk car and unsightly, they can cite you for that separately. Citing you for expired registration is just a $$$$ play, that I don't think that should extend onto private property, so long as the vehicle is not causing a nuisance, or is unsightly, etc.

See that's the thing.  How can you fault someone for having a shitty car?  You can't.  You can cite someone for having a shitty car that's "abandoned" and undrivable.  The registration is about the only legal way to prove if a car is drivable or not.  Problem is that it's backwards in the driveway with no way to prove that it's not registered.  How else could they prove a vehicle is abandoned? 

We have a house down the road with multiple cars in the driveway (all backwards) that haven't moved in 5 years, literally.  MCCD can't do anything about it because they can't see the plates.  Coming from first hand experience with this issue, I see it as a legit solution to an ongoing issue.

This is an idiotic solution to a limited problem (your neighbors down the street notwithstanding).  If someone's got a shitty car don't they have enough problems in their life without the city coming and fucking with them and making them pay bullshit fines?  They're already poor or they wouldn't have a piece of shit car!  Or maybe they would live in a nicer house with a garage where they could hide it.  But they're poor so let's charge them more money or put them in jail so they can lose their presumably shitty job and get even further behind. 

It's this kind of nitpicky nickel and diming that drives poor people past the breaking point.  If you'll remember the city of Ferguson has been paying the bills for years by legally stealing from poor people.  That usually doesn't work out well.  Warren Jones should damn well know better. 

[ChriswUfGator]

One crappy car doesn't bother me, there's just that certain personality type that accumulates a bunch of crappy cars in the yard, and that's what's mildly annoying. The minimum wage dude with one crappy car I wouldn't pick on, I'm really not 'that' guy. It's that 1 in 10 or 20 people who'll wind up with a redneck sanford & son style junkyard going next door that's the problem. Tell me with a straight face you don't know that's true...

That said, I'm against what they're doing. It's yet another government incursion into private property, I'm against it on principle.

[Ajax]

One crappy car doesn't bother me, there's just that certain personality type that accumulates a bunch of crappy cars in the yard, and that's what's mildly annoying. The minimum wage dude with one crappy car I wouldn't pick on, I'm really not 'that' guy. It's that 1 in 10 or 20 people who'll wind up with a redneck sanford & son style junkyard going next door that's the problem. Tell me with a straight face you don't know that's true...

That said, I'm against what they're doing. It's yet another government incursion into private property, I'm against it on principle.

I agree I wouldn't want to live next to Fred G. Sanford.  But there must be other ordinances on the books to help deal with something like this.  And while you and I wouldn't want to pick on the minimum wage guy, the power-hungry dork from the city won't see it that way - they'll say that they have to enforce the law equally, which usually means that the minimum wage guys are the ones who will bear the brunt of this. 

[strider]

Has data been provided that gives an indication of how many unregistered cars are backed into driveways?  Is it dozens, thousands, tens of thousands?  This sounds more like fundraising.  The word on this type of law is seldom well distributed and so most won't even know it was passed (if it is) so in the beginning, lots of ticket revenue from the "innocent" person who does have a registered car and just backs it in.  Or covered his pride and joy.  MCCD has this bad habit of interpreting ordinances in the best way to cause grief to the public.  In fact, they often misquote the ordinance in their reports to make them worse than what they are. They make people jump through hoops that really do not exist.  They ignore the laws they do not like.  Giving this department any more power over the public should be a sin.

[Charles Hunter]

One crappy car doesn't bother me, there's just that certain personality type that accumulates a bunch of crappy cars in the yard, and that's what's mildly annoying. The minimum wage dude with one crappy car I wouldn't pick on, I'm really not 'that' guy. It's that 1 in 10 or 20 people who'll wind up with a redneck sanford & son style junkyard going next door that's the problem. Tell me with a straight face you don't know that's true...

That said, I'm against what they're doing. It's yet another government incursion into private property, I'm against it on principle.

I agree I wouldn't want to live next to Fred G. Sanford.  But there must be other ordinances on the books to help deal with something like this. And while you and I wouldn't want to pick on the minimum wage guy, the power-hungry dork from the city won't see it that way - they'll say that they have to enforce the law equally, which usually means that the minimum wage guys are the ones who will bear the brunt of this. 

That is supposed to be the point of the No-Back-In ordinance.  If a car has current registration (tag), no matter how crappy it looks, it cannot be cited as a "junk car".   If that derelict looking car next door has a current tag, I don't think there is anything Code Enforcement can do.  Since we only have tags on the back, the only way CE can check from the street, is if the car isn't backed in.  The new law does allow you to back in or cover your car, but you must clearly display the tag number, so it is visible from the street.

[acme54321]

I agree with you. If it's a junk car and unsightly, they can cite you for that separately. Citing you for expired registration is just a $$$$ play, that I don't think that should extend onto private property, so long as the vehicle is not causing a nuisance, or is unsightly, etc.

See that's the thing.  How can you fault someone for having a shitty car?  You can't.  You can cite someone for having a shitty car that's "abandoned" and undrivable.  The registration is about the only legal way to prove if a car is drivable or not.  Problem is that it's backwards in the driveway with no way to prove that it's not registered.  How else could they prove a vehicle is abandoned? 

We have a house down the road with multiple cars in the driveway (all backwards) that haven't moved in 5 years, literally.  MCCD can't do anything about it because they can't see the plates.  Coming from first hand experience with this issue, I see it as a legit solution to an ongoing issue.

This is an idiotic solution to a limited problem (your neighbors down the street notwithstanding).  If someone's got a shitty car don't they have enough problems in their life without the city coming and fucking with them and making them pay bullshit fines?  They're already poor or they wouldn't have a piece of shit car!  Or maybe they would live in a nicer house with a garage where they could hide it.  But they're poor so let's charge them more money or put them in jail so they can lose their presumably shitty job and get even further behind. 

It's this kind of nitpicky nickel and diming that drives poor people past the breaking point.  If you'll remember the city of Ferguson has been paying the bills for years by legally stealing from poor people.  That usually doesn't work out well.  Warren Jones should damn well know better.

What?  Did you even read my post you quoted?  No one is blaming anyone for having a shitty car.  I have one myself.  It's 16 years old and beat, but it's registered and I drive it.  This doesn't have anything to do with making poor people poorer.  It is actually giving teeth to an existing ordinance that is to combat people with junkyards in their driveways. 

[Deadline]

If this is a REAL issue, maybe Florida just goes to front license plates like in other states such as California...

It's not and NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

[Jax native]

So I pull a trailer that I park in my garage. If this passes, I will have to back the trailer in, unhook, then turn the truck around to park so that the tag can be seen. Then the next morning, I will have to back out of the driveway, turn around and then back up to hook up....I will have to do this everyday as opposed to just backing the trailer in and then dropping it and closing the garage door. That is idiotic and shows that the city council can't solve problems. If this is a REAL issue, maybe Florida just goes to front license plates like in other states such as California...

I'm unsure if anyone has brought this to your attention, but if you read the entire, short article you would see this sentence '
"The bill filed by City Councilman Warren Jones says that if a vehicle’s tag isn’t visible from the street, the owner must write down that information with 2-inch tall letters and post it in a location that inspectors can easily see from the street."

It's not rocket science to read and place a 2 inch card w/ info up front.  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Lots of panic for no reason and NO this doesn't mean the government is taking over or you no longer "live in the land of the free".

False Hysterics.

[menace1069]

^ Thank You.