More experiences:

Submitted by J.P.:

You might be interested in what happened to me last summer.

I parked on the north side of 10th Street across Van Buren from Cool Spring Park. When I returned I had a ticket for parking in a block where street cleaning was scheduled.

There was no sign telling me that. The sign on the other side of 10th Street said no parking on Mondays. This was a Wednesday.

There are three utility pole on the north side of the block between Van Buren and Harrison. None had a sign. As far as I know, they still don't.

The nearest sign designating that side of the street for no parking on Wednesdays is midway between Harrison and Franklin, a block and a half from where I parked and not visible (let alone readable) from where I was.

The ticket said I could appeal to a review board. Figuring I had a sure thing, I did. I included a photo I took the next day with my car parked where it had been. The photo showed clearly that there was no warning sign on the pole immediately in front of my car.

Several weeks later, I received a letter denying my appeal.

Get this: The letter in bold-face type quoted two passages from the city ordinance. One said you can't park where they are going to sweep. Fair enough. The other said the city is required to post signs telling you that. That, of course, was the very point of my appeal -- no sign. That told me no one had actually considered my appeal if, indeed, anyone had read it.

Figuring you can't win fighting City Hall and not wanting to invest the time and cost to go to court, I paid the $40.