Parking Ticket Blues

I am a carpet cleaner in Santa Barbara, and recently I acquired my first parking ticket in two years. I made a simple mistake, and I am willing to pay for my ticket. Obviously, next time I am cleaning carpets, literally for a blind customer, I will not trust their advice on parking! Joking aside, I really have a serious problem with an extra $1.50 “convenience fee” the city’s site charged on top of an already inconvenient $45.00 charge with an extremely inconvenient 10-day due date.

I wonder if our city understands how outrageously difficult the strain is upon the lower class to live here. I was born in Cottage Hospital, and I absolutely love Santa Barbara with all my heart, yet I feel as though our government expects all residents to have a trust fund to dive into whenever needed, and rightfully so! Santa Barbara is filled with rich, spoiled people who disregard and ignore the law at their convenience.

I, on the other hand, live paycheck to paycheck. I am constantly broke, and my student loan tab keeps rising to substitute for diminishing pay. I obviously was able to provide the funds needed, but I had to budget less money for food. I do understand that $1.50 really is not a substantial amount of money, yet by the same token, it seems so ridiculous to charge it in the first place. So I am writing simply express my distaste for the extra stab, after my city attacked my bank account. If for no other reason, I have learned that nothing will change if nothing is said, so let it be said!