By Michael Pardridge Santa Monica
I have been mailing letters at the main post office since I moved here as a boy in 1957 — and 99 times out of 100 (times), I’ve done so by “jaywalking” in the middle of the block across Fifth Street. On Tuesday (Nov. 28), I received a $30 citation, with the officer saying, “We’ve received a lot of complaints about near-misses here.”
Oh, really? I’ve never witnessed a single one in all my almost-daily trips to the post office. Has anybody else?
Certainly, the SMPD has been vigilant about handing out moving violation tickets for making U-turns on the block — a virtual necessity unless you want to park a block away or more just to run in a letter or buy stamps. Wouldn’t a warning have been sufficient? Or perhaps some public comment from the police that we are going to be citing for this, so straighten up your act, Santa Monica? How about signs posted inside the post office alerting patrons to this sudden overnight enforcement policy?
People die by the thousands each and every day from the evils of smoking, but the city’s new no smoking policy, which took effect Thanksgiving Day in Santa Monica, gives all those lung-wrenching law-breakers amnesty until Jan. 1, 2007. Amnesty and all sorts of warnings, like friendly Explorers handing out flyers on the (promenade). Not so for us postal “jaywalkers.” Lucky for me I was able to e-mail this Letter to the Editor.
Hey, there’s an idea... that doesn’t bode well for the U.S. Postal system.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 2, 2006. Read the original PDF.