Sunday, May 28, 2017

Another fee from our friendly Municipality

Mt. Lebanon looks to change overnight street parking policy

Want to park overnight in front of your house? It will cost you. Even with permission, it will soon cost you. You think it is your right as an American? Ha! You have no rights here.
Ticketing vehicles parked on the street overnight without permission also provides a source of revenue, with $162,105 collected in overnight parking reinforcement in 2016, according to Lauth.
 Our commissioners are looking into changing the overnight street parking. Aren't you glad you voted for them?

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, it's no sweat off the backs of McMansion owners that have 2, 3 or 4 car garage and can park a small fleet of cars in their driveways, but to those residents in older homes or apartments with a single garage and little or no driveway it creates an undue burden.

This is a similar fee (tax on reality) as the stormwater fee that imposes a higher fee on those with less than a 1/4 acre lot compared to those with a full acre or more.

Anonymous said...

If they need money so badly why don't they enforce the 3 hour time limit on Shady during day hours so renters can have spaces during the day. Plus give the renters an exemption.

Anonymous said...

I don't have a driveway. I bought an older home. What about us ?

Lebo Citizens said...

3:06 PM, I'm not sure if the commissioners will have a public hearing on this issue, if it even gets that far. I suggest keeping an eye on the agendas. If there is a public hearing, get a crowd together and speak at the hearing. It will make you feel better, thinking you are involved in the process. But don't get your hopes up. The harsh reality is that the commissioners don't really care what you think. You have no rights. There, I just saved you thousands of dollars to learn that valuable lesson.
Elaine

Anonymous said...

You're screwed 3:06, Bendel thinks it's a good idea.
You can pay for brick street and pay to park in front of your own home, how can you not see that as being fair?

Anonymous said...

If it's money the municipality is after, why don't they charge a fee to the homeowners that want deer exterminators on their property?

Anonymous said...

This fee will not affect those in Virginia Manor. Disgraceful.

Anonymous said...

Are there really people that would rather leave their vehicle on the street if they had somewhere else to park it?

Look at the police blotter and see how many hit and runs occur with parked cars.

Unknown said...

Back when I used to visit this circus, I remember the pre-planned Bendel-Lauth sideshow well. It went something like this:

Bendel: I just don't know, I am really on the fence about killing deer. I could really be swayed by what Chief Lauth thinks. Wait--there he is in the audience! Chief Lauth, would you please come up to speak and share your unplanned spontaneous thoughts about killing deer?

Lauth: Sure, John, thanks, nice to see you - it's been a while. Yes, I believe killing deer is in the best interest of public safety and the financial well-being of the community.

Bendel: Wow, well that really says something there. Thanks so much Chief Lauth. See you later tonight--er, uh, I mean see you around.

As transparent as thin plastic.

Anonymous said...

Mount Lebanon does not permit overnight parking from 2-6am for reasons described in THE ALMANAC. For a fee, those reasons will evaporate.

Lebo Citizens said...

I think you nailed it, 7:27 AM. For a fee, many things are overlooked here.
Elaine

Anonymous said...

7:27, you couldn't have described what is going on any better than that!

Anonymous said...

But, if you have a lot of influence there is no fee to exterminate your pesky deer.
Everyone else will foot the bill for you.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how much of the new fee has to do with deterring residents from sitting on their couches and just putting in online requests to leave their car in the street as a matter of convenience? I remember being at a board meeting where the request pipeline was described in that manner.

Anonymous said...

We had to leave our car on the street for a dead battery. No warning when this happened. Physically impossible to move the car. So, if that's the case, what is one supposed to do?

Anonymous said...

8:35, really there are a slew of people leaving their cars on the street rather than pulling them in their driveway?

How many years has the parking ban been in effect and it has just become a problem?

Maybe that explains the dismal turnout at the polls, we've just gotten fat and lazy.

Lebo Citizens said...

8:51 PM, I am guessing that you call AAA.
I can't wait to see when someone is willing to pay the fee, but gets turned down by the municipality citing one of the exceptions. Are there high crime neighborhoods? Who wins then? What about those with disabilities - in a high crime neighborhood? Can people sue if they are denied? This is going to be fun to watch. I don't think the commissioners have thought this one through.
Elaine

Anonymous said...

Why should the commissioners think this through, it's no skin off their backs. Besides if they ever needed extended onstreet parking they'd get a friendly pass you can be sure.

Plus, did you ever wonder who the people were that ignored those $500,000 in unpaid parking fines that were written off a few years ago.

Lebo Citizens said...

Try $800,000 in unpaid parking tickets, 10:02 PM.
Parking Authority overlooked over $800,000 in parking tickets
Elaine


Anonymous said...

Great, they're hard up for money to pay for things like that gorgeous F-150 pickup truck (why do we need that) and they couldn't collect $800,000 in parking fines!
Maybe we should just refuse to pay overnight parking fines.

Anonymous said...

Bet those people that paid the $162,000 in overnight fines feelfoolish after reading about someone ignoring 159 parking tickets.

Anonymous said...

This post and the comments that follow it makes me scramble to figure out what goes on in those commissioners' little brains. Not much, as far as I can tell. On the residential streets of Mt. Lebanon, scores of vehicles are parked with two or four tires on the sidewalks. In some instances, those vehicles completely restrict pedestrian use of the sidewalks. The PA Vehicle Code specifically bars parking on sidewalks. In that same statute, a curb is defined as part of the sidewalk.

Now, try this experiment, if you so desire. Call the MLPD on the next car you see parked on a sidewalk. Once in a blue moon, a car parked on the sidewalk will be ticketed illegal parking. Most of the time, however, the cops do a drive by and do nothing about the illegally parked vehicle.

If the muni wants to add some cash to its pockets, the commissioners could insist that the police ticket cars for sidewalk parking. Bam. Money would flow into the muni and pedestrians would have full use of sidewalks. Two benefits for the price of one.

S.

Anonymous said...

Something I've always wondered.
In the article on those forgiven unpaid parking fines it states that one person had unpaid 159 tickets.
How does one accumulate so many without their car being booted or impounded?

Anonymous said...

This is so rediculous.
On one hand they want to attract millennial s and young families into the community and with the other penalize them for doing so.
These young people and families probably require that both parents work so they can afford that Mt. Lebanon starter home with a small garage and or driveway and they're going to pound them with newcomer taxes and frivolous fees.
Bendel and his ilk don't give a hoot about you so I'd recommend looking else where.

Lebo Citizens said...

Yes, it is ridiculous. There are homes in my neighborhood that don't have a driveway or garage. Even when Gateway Engineer and Virginia Manor resident Dan Deiseroth said that Rockwood Park is in the "outskirts of Mt. Lebanon," a.k.a. ghetto, we are still Mt. Lebanon residents who are being hit unfairly.

And for you trolls out there who claim that I feel victimized or bitter in some way, I am speaking for my neighbors who will be hard hit by this latest scam. I have no debt and don't have to work. Can you make that statement?
Elaine

Anonymous said...

Hey Mr. Bendel and Mr. Laugh.
Why not make this fee fair and equitable.
For those residents with no or a very small parking space that might have two cars or family or friends visiting for an extended time there is no fee, but for those homeowners that have enough parking for a small fleet of vehicles hammer them with big fines. There's no reason they should obstruct traffic ever with parked vehicles in the street.

Anonymous said...

Correct... Lauth.

Damn auto spell check. Sorry.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Elaine, that's a pompous and asinine statement for Deiseroth to say. I wonder if it reflects a view held by many and is that part of this big Unity drive to bring the community together.

The outskirts of Mt. Lebanon?! If it's in the borders of and it residents pay their taxes to Mt. Lebanon... it is Mt. Lebanon.

What's with this
attitude "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche"
You better than us peasants on the outskirts, as you take our money?

Anonymous said...

How's this for a suggestion Commission Bendel.

Why don't we impose a fee on residents for the number of vehicles they own? Especially those with big Escalades, Tahoes and luxury pick up trucks that pollute more and are harder on our streets than Civics, Corollas.

After all there's this big PAYT mentality here, let's apply it to everything!

Anonymous said...

When public Servants, and that's Servants with a capital S, begin to talk in terms like "outskirts" in reference to a MTL neighbor it is time to seriously replacing that person!

Think about it, they've placed a value judgement on that area as... "oh that's the outskirts, don't worry about it!" Or, "their street maintenance isn't a big deal cuz that's the outskirts and nobody really lives there!"

Lebo Citizens said...

Dan Deiseroth's Virginia Manor is just as much in the outskirts of Mt. Lebanon as we are in my neighborhood.
Elaine

Anonymous said...

Sorry Elaine, everyone who's anybody knows that Virginia Manor is the center of the universe.

Lebo Citizens said...

Will the person who submitted the comment about VA. Manor and storm water fees please resubmit? I accidentally deleted it.
Elaine

Anonymous said...

Can't remember the deleted comment word for word, but it related to Virginia Manor being so much the center of the universe that it must not suffer from so much rainfall as the residential lots on the outskirts of the municipality.

How do we know this? It must be so, because the commissioners and engineer probably, have determined that despite Virginia Manor residences have impervious driveways and patios substantially than many outskirts lots, they pay the same stormwater fee as everyone else.

So we can only conclude they don't get as much rain as us poor peons with tiny lots, right?

Anonymous said...

Correction: impervious driveways and patios substantially larger than many "outskirt" lots they pay the same stormwater fee as everyone else.

Anonymous said...

To be clear, it's not the amount of the storm water fee, but the inequity of it.
There are people in this community that believe we must have PAYT for things like garbage collection and onstreet parking, but suggest anything like making the stormwater fee (tax) fair and they'll go ballistic that it's too hard.