My sister came to visit recently, since she was driving, I reminded her that she needed to have a place to park her car while she was here. On other visits, both my sister, and a friend, had their cars broken into while staying with me. I will never let anyone with a car park it on the street overnight ever again. It’s way too easy for people to break into cars without any retribution. The sad part is the most expensive damage done is to the window. My sister, and my friend, didn't have anything expensive in their cars, but a common thread, is they both have Oregon license plates.
In my sister’s case, she had a bag of food on the backseat that she forgot to bring in, and the bandit decided it might contain something awesome. She told me later that she heard her car alarm sound, and as she peered outside, and noticed someone rummaging around in her car. As I slept soundly, she bolted off the couch, out the door, down the stairs, and across the street to yank the person from her car. She yelled at the guy to get the fuck out of her car, and he retorted by claiming that he wasn’t the one who had done the damage.
She relayed the story to me in the morning. I, being the older, more protective sister, came up with scary scenarios like: what if he had a gun, or knife. For some reason, I always picture knives as being the worse weapon. I make the assumption that criminals may be more inclined to use a knife than a gun. Regardless, I wasn’t happy she had gone out there alone, super late, and with no shoes on! I would have been like, cool, someone’s in my car, he can have that bag of food. But, my sister had just gotten out of the coast guard, which means, she’s already kind of a bad-ass.
Her visit this time was a good one, it's always really nice to see her. And no break-ins!
Your sister's a badass just for her spider-sense! I mean, how does a smashed window or car alarm wake her up in the middle of the night!?!
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI came upon your blog when looking for information about living in the Tenderloin. Honest and fun blog.
On this topic of car parking, I'm scoping out places to rent an apartment (rent and nearby stores as factors), do you know how the parking is in the Tenderloin if you own a car? I'm thinking of somewhere between Gough to Leavenworth and California down to Golden Gate.
I noticed the street parking is pretty restrictive and was wondering if you owned a car and if so, how do you handle parking it? If you don't, would you know off-hand how others arrange it? Do they pay to park it in a garage? Do they constantly wake-up early to move it?
Thanks,
Kevin
Kevin,
DeleteThanks for checking out the blog...As for your query, I don't drive myself, and haven't the whole time I've lived here. My strong advice if you intend to live downtown, is to ditch the car, the public transportation in SF is pretty good. With meters, and street cleaning hours, it makes it hard for people to park their car on the street. Some buildings offer a car rental space, usually not included in the price of the apartment. And keep in mind, if you want to live in the TL, there's a large chance of your car being broken into if you leave it on the street overnight. I don't know anyone myself who pays to park their car in a parking garage. Of the friends I do have that had cars here, they got rid of them after awhile, because it's such a hassle. I hope this helps!