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“I got a letter from the DMV/ the other day….”

So if you’ve ever spent a decent amount of time driving a car in DC, you may have had the occasion to locate a parking spot.  And if you park enough in DC, you’re bound to get a parking ticket.  For most people, the inevitable reaction when you spot that noxious little pink and white slip of paper peaking out from under your windshield wiper is either to curse your own stupidity or wish some dire fate on the person who gave it to you (I prefer the latter). But it’s a big city, with a lot of confusing signs (take the contradictory signage pictured in this post, for instance), and sometimes you’re just in a hurry and don’t have time to read every sign on the block.  So it happens.  And since a seemingly innocuous or unclear street parking rule can set you back $25 to $100, DC parking tickets are offbeat.  DC also gets bonus offbeat points for designating every single ticket ever issued as being a proper candidate for towing (honestly, where it says “Towing Required” on the ticket, do they ever enter “No”? It’s always “YES”).

But being the good folks that we are at OnBeat, we’d like to help our loyal readers even the score.  And what a lot of people don’t realize is that parking tickets in DC are actually pretty easy to beat.  It used to be as simple as writing a challenge letter and, where necessary, attaching some evidence with the letter to prove your case.  Now it’s even easier, as DC has set up an online system for challenging parking tickets, which you can find here:

http://dmv.washingtondc.gov/serv/ticket/parking_contesttix.shtm

I lived in the District for almost 4 years, and I probably was able to beat 15 or so tickets through the mail-in method (I haven’t tried the online challenge system yet, but will assume it works).  And even though some of the tickets I got were clearly BS, there were a couple of challenges I sent in that I did not think had a chance of working, yet miraculously I still won.  So you actually don’t even need a good argument to beat a ticket.  Just sending in a challenge gives you a fighting chance at beating it.

Here’s my theory on DC’s dirty little secret: they don’t have the resources to deal with every ticket challenge. Denying a ticket challenge can give you the option of appealing it, which then requires a hearing.  There’s no way DC has the resources to handle people challenging every single ticket.  Another factor of course is that, as most people no doubt suspect, DC tries to use parking tickets to increase the cash flow.  So its meter maid minions are encouraged to write a ticket whenever possible.

Lost your faith in the ability of bureaucracy to give you a win?  Au contraire mon frere.  Recent statistics show that nearly three-fifths of all DC parking challenges are successful.  And even when people lost their initial challenge, 1 out of 3 were able to reverse the tickets on appeal.

Think it’s too much trouble? It’s not. In fact it’s pretty easy. Many challenges just require a common-sense assessment of the violation, which will be indicated in short-hand on your ticket. For instance, I challenged a recent $100 ticket for parking during rush hour.  But the sign was at the other end of the block and was not visible from my parking spot.  I took a picture of the street view in both directions from my car to show that the sign was not readily visible, sent it in with a brief explanation, and several months later, got a letter back saying my ticket challenge had been upheld.  Other common reasons to challenge tickets: conflicting signs, wrong infraction listed, invalid enforcement hours, incorrect license plate number. And you should always provide evidence if possible, preferably with a photo, and also preferably of conditions as they were at the time of the offense.  Luckily, so many cell phones have cameras these days that the photo part is pretty easy.

Too much trouble?  Most tickets are between $25 and $100.  This should take you about 30 minutes to an hour tops to challenge. That’s not a huge amount of trouble to save that money.  And hey, it’s the principle of the thing man.

Another advantage of challenging your ticket is that, even if you lose, it delays when you will have to pay by 3 to 6 months. Just make sure you challenge it within 30 days of your ticket, otherwise the ticket penalty will double.

So the next time some meter maid tries to steal your shine, don’t let it ruin your day. Take the time to challenge the ticket.  There’s a good chance you’ll win.

August of 2011 will mark the 9 year anniversary of my efforts in bboying.  It has been a long and injury plagued journey thus far, but if I had it to do over again I would not change a thing.  Im sure other members of our staff, and bboys around the globe (9 years is nothing in the scheme of things) would be able to tell you a similar story. 

Not too long ago a young bboy asked me, “where does your motivation to keep on dancing come from?”  I responded quickly with some inane and poorly thought out answer related to the appreciation of artforms and blah blah blah.  I meant what I said at the time, but the answer felt incomplete as I expressed it.  The truth is, I lose motivation on occasion and begin to forget why I have placed so much heart and energy into this activity that has yielded me so little on a material level.  I have even considered quitting altogether, but for some purpose I obviously cannot fully explain, I have kept on.  The bottom line as I have recently come to realize is, I never really came up with a good enough excuse to stop…  Apparently that’s all the reason I’ve ever needed.

The reason I had to give this kid a bullshit answer (sorry Javier, hopefully you get a chance to read this) was because I tried to give him reasons to dance.  At the end of the day Javier has his own reasons, just as I have mine and you have yours; this goes well beyond bboying.  In anwering his question I should have focused not so much on the concept of why, but the simple question “why not?”…     

I know this is getting philisophical, but I guess that’s the point of this post.  I have been inspired recently by a thank you note sent to Charlie and I from a long time friend of mine named Alex Diaz.  Alex is a 27 year old 2nd year medical student at George Washington University.  He has known about bboying for a long time now, but has only recently started training.  He has taken to the artform and philosophy behind it remarkably quick, but has faced at the same time plenty of negativite comments from his peers; to summarize their thoughts, he is too old to start something like this and he could not possibly find enough spare time… Personally, I think people who say things like this are trying to give their reasons for not following thier own passions in life; here is what Alex has to say:

“It’s always a worthwhile pursuit to push oneself out of his/her comfort zone; for in that process the beauty & empowerment of self-discovery are unveiled. There are countless reasons to not do something, but the sole reason that should propel us into action is simple………..why not?

Far too often our life is spent in a state of input –> output; no thinking, no creativity to claim as our own; just regurgitate the words & ideas of others. Unfortunately we have become experts in muting the greatest voice of all, that of individualism. Our birthright is the mind. To uninhibitedly dive in should be an experience that remains a possibility until our last breath.  

I’m Alex Diaz. I want to know who that is.”

Thank you for reading, let us know what you think.

-Jay

Valentine’s Day leaves many in love or seeking love with a feeling of euphoria, but it can leave others in these situations with feelings of failure or discontent.  Disappointingly, a positive or negative outcome is often predicated on how much cash you are willing to fork over for the cause.

In some office today, a lucky lady is going to have a huge stuffed animal, 24 roses, and a box of ridiculously overpriced chocolates dropped on her desk; she is going to be the envy of her friends, and the guy who made it all possible will be a Valentine’s Day hero.  However, this seemingly heroic feat will have all been accomplished with five spare minutes, three clicks of a mouse, and a 200 dollar payment to Flowers.com. 

Things weren’t always this way.  Though the exact history is disputed, the concept of Valentine’s Day as a romantic holiday dates back at least to the 14^th century. It was a day to exchange cards and poetry, and to tell people in your life how you felt about them.  It wasn’t until the later half of the 20^th century in which it became common place to give roses and candy; 60 corporate greed filled years later…  Valentine’s Day has become an industry worth nearly 14 billion dollars.  I’m all for stimulating the economy, but I think we should be going about it in a method that doesn’t exploit people’s emotions and produce a landfill’s worth of red and pink garbage.  

It seems like the companies profiting the most from this holiday are trying to convince us that all women are extremely materialistic, and that men should be measured by the size of their bank accounts.  While most of us know this is far from the truth, a day like today makes is difficult to see through fog.  Valentine’s Day should be happy and stress free for everybody involved. 

With that said… Happy Valentine’s Day from On Beat! Thank you for reading and helping us grow. Try not to take today too seriously. Save your cash and do something small to show you care, and if you’re single like me, just enjoy the day off.

-Jay

You may have heard about them, you may have seen them; you may even be amongst the first to purchase one.  I am referring of course to the 31 ounce insult to human health and well being known as the Starbucks Trenta.  Starbucks recently decided that selling you 24 ounces of iced, over caffeinated coffee blended with milk, sugar, and whatever else is just not enough.  This new size offering pushes some of the companies’ more substantive drinks well passed 800 calories. What’s worse, these beverages are being served chilled or frozen; encouraging the consumer to put them down as quickly as possible.  I read in another article, the average human stomach has a capacity of around 30 ounces.  Is Starbucks attempting to fill out our throats with their coffee as well?  

Before I go any further, I’m not posting this just to hate on Starbucks; I drink a lot of coffee and go there often enough, I appreciate the countless convenient locations, I cannot deny their business model, and think their coffee is pretty decent in the scheme of things.  My main issue with their new 31 ounce attempt to squeeze a few more quarters out of us lies in their two faced approach.  On the way to your local Starbuck’s counter you walk passed organic almonds, fresh fruit, and bottled water that directly benefits impoverished communities.  They try to make you feel great about buying your coffee from a caring and responsible corporation, and then they slap you in the face by selling you something that will give you diabetes.

I realize that Starbucks is not the original evil genius behind this; they are just another aggressive business willing to sell us whatever we are willing to buy.  If the many other ridiculously oversized and nutrition-free products out there are any indication, the new size will likely be a permanent addition to the menu.   I can see the Trenta becoming the yuppie version of the Dairy Queen Blizzard…..

 So in conclusion, I don’t hate you Starbucks, I’m just disappointed.  I think you should cool it with this Trenta non-sense and try to focus on selling us people sized drinks.  You are getting way too greedy and for that you are off beat.  It’s your customer base; do you really want them spending all of their money on insulin?      

-Thanks for reading,

Jay

It’s been sometime because of the holidays and we are all out travelling visiting loved ones. So hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and looking forward to the New Year!