Yep, we have a nominee for the City by the Bay Award — the City of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Home of the first outdoor mall in the US (1959) and famous for growing celery – I guess. Did you know that the name Kalamazoo means "Bubbling water" or "Reflecting off the water" — Neither did I….
OK here’s the deal — The city has decreed that free parking on street should be good for only 90 minutes, and then you must move your car 500 feet or get a ticket. HUH — According to the article (read it here and be prepared to laugh) they have a great formula for figuring out what 500 feet means, and no way to enforce it. They probably don’t know that there are GPS systems that can, in fact, enforce this new rule, but that’s another story.
Even more interesting is their method of charging for parking -0- on street parking is free, or in some places being lowered to nearly free, and off street parking is paid, but they are lowering that price, too.
So, let’s see — if you park on street you pay nothing, unless you stay over 90 minutes. If you park off street you pay very little. huh.
Oh and check out the complicated rules — its worth reading the article, I’m not going to repeat them here. I will say, however, that I love the one that says that if you haven’t had a parking ticket in the last year, you can have your ticket voided, if you ask. If you don’t ask, you pay.
Dontcha just love it.
Kalamazoo needs a Shoupista Chapter, and they need it today.
JVH
One Response
Hello all.
My Aunt Lila, a severely disabled and paralyzed Michigan resident needs our help, and a simple nomination from you could make all the difference!
I’m involved in a campaign to nominate her for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and I could sure use some help!! She is badly in need of a handicap accessible home.
My Aunt Lila had been recovering from a near death illness, when after making the mortgage payments for 20 years, she and her family lost her handicap accessible home and all of their hard earned equity due to foreclosure. Several spinal strokes have left her very fragile and she no longer has the physical capacity to replace her home.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is currently asking for stories about people who, in addition to dealing with significant challenges, have also been involved in volunteer/charitable work, a profile that describes Lila perfectly!
We are very excited because six-time Grammy award winner, Jose Feliciano has made a video nomination and we have a nomination from our city Mayor, Peter Strazdas. The odds of being chosen will be greatly increased with the support of our community as well.
We have a website where Jose’s video nomination can be viewed and there is a form for submitting additional nominations: http://www.homeforlila.com. Please take a few moments to visit the website to learn about Lila and why your help is so important.
Making the nomination is simple – just fill out and submit the online form!
Please help by forwarding/sharing this with your congregation, friends, other individuals, church groups, schools, etc. as we are trying for 1000+ total nominations. Your help could make all the difference!
Please let us know if you have any ideas that you think would help!
Thank you so much for taking the time to help!
Sincerely,
Angie Hensley
The Home for Lila Committee
http://www.homeforlila.com
Email – http://www.homeforlila@yahoo.com