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Why I hate Hollywood. And movie shoots. And the city of Los Angeles. And my life.*
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*Update: Read the developments from the next day.
I don't think I'm a bad person. I'm nice to strangers. I gave my belt to a homeless man a few weeks ago. And I drive my car as little as possible so as not to pollute the environment or exacerbate our dangerous oil dependency. I bike everywhere. In fact, I frequently go a week or more without using my car at all. So why am I getting punished by the city of Los Angeles and a bunch of Hollywood twits?
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Here's my story: I hadn't driven since Wednesday of last week. I even rode my bike to Union Station to catch the FlyAway shuttle to LAX when I went out of town last weekend -- luggage on my back and everything. My car was parked on Hoover, which never has street cleaning and is usually a great place to leave the car for days at a time.
Then yesterday morning I saw my car as I left the house on my bike, headed for work, and everything looked fine. That evening, however, I returned from work I found the entire side of the street was empty... including where my car had been.
I checked the signs, called the number, and it turned out there was a temporary "No Parking/Tow Zone" put into effect for Tuesday only. The city is only required to leave signs up for 24 hours before they can ticket and tow your car. So why was a tow zone put into effect on my street for that day? Was the mayor visiting? Were they constructing a new hospital or homeless shelter? Alas, no. The answer appeared shortly after I discovered my missing car, in the form of several Star Wagons arriving to park in the lot behind my apartment. I thought about throwing eggs, but it seemed like a waste of food.
Thanks to the movie jerks, I'm out a bunch of money. The tow cost $185 and the parking ticket is $50. I hate Hollywood so much, I would boycott movies for the rest of my life -- except Netflix just decreased my monthly fee. Maybe I'll start illegally downloading movies until I think I've got $235 worth of free flicks.
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