A whiny, ridiculous letter in today’s Washington Post that bugged me enough that I wrote a response:
Westward, Ho!
Friday, April 11, 2003; Page A26
After 10 arduous years in the District, I’m out of there. My going-away present? A $100 ticket for not having my car tags up to date.
Did the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles send me a reminder that my tags were about to expire? An invoice? Nah, it saved 37 cents on a stamp and collected a $100 fine instead. According to the DMV, notifications are a courtesy and not a service. And to dispute the ticket would mean spending half a day in a place I liken to Dante’s Inferno, despite Tony Williams’s renovations.
My decade in the District has led me to conclude that the only thing the city does efficiently is write parking tickets and anger residents.
With crater-size potholes in the streets, a police chief who deems flashing lights to be an improvement in delivering services, unabated crime, an inefficient city government and a mayor who seems ambivalent to it all, I bid the District good riddance and good luck.
CASEY J. SONDGEROTH
San Francisco
My response:
While the District government has much to answer for – and much to improve – it’s ridiculous to blame a $100 ticket for expired tags on the lack of a “reminder” from the government. Take a little responsibility for your own life. The government, such as it is, is not in the business of reminding lazy or indifferent citizens of their responsibilities and obligations. Auto owners know that they must renew their tags annually, and the evidence of the date this is to be done is right before their eyes every time they drive. Waiting for someone else to remind you what to do and then blaming them when you don’t do it is childish and irresponsible.
Gene Cowan
Arlington, VA
