Over on this side of the river, a boot on a car for failure to pay the “I don’t own a garage” tax otherwise known as a parking ticket, is quite the common sight. Occasionally, you even see people contemplating if they can take it off themselves, looking at the lock, checking out where it’s clamped. When the money is low the last thing you want to do is throw it away. Which is the reason you never paid your tickets, which lead to the clamp that’s gonna cost you an extra $150, which if you don’t pay in time is gonna mean your ride will get towed and then you are truly jodido. The non-poor rarely realize how expensive it is to be poor. And no, being broke is not poor. When you can no longer call the parents or your other unspecified “resources” to bail you out, then you’ll start finding out what it means to be poor. And by the looks of this fancy BMW/Benz/whatever the fuck it is with a boot, seems people will start getting acquainted with the concept of without fairly soon!
(Update 3/28: Another picture to admire added to end of post!)
You’d think that in a part of town where people tend to have money, or pretend to have money, they’d be able to pay those parking tickets. You’d think. But no, some still get the boot. I imagine it’s just someone too busy to be bothered with those little details of life, those things you can usually shove off on an assistant or some other menial laborer. That’s my first guess. Or could it be that the wheels are starting to freeze up on that unsustainable lifestyle of consumption? That would be my second guess.
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The County Line: What Not to Say
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Living on Less 102
Manipulating Machines for Mobile Merriment
Avoiding the “Classes” Scam
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UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE!
So right on cue, today in Malibu (I was pitching my screenplay about an elotero that falls in love with a traffic light to some mofo, why else would I be here?) I spot yet another example of the cracks on that fancy lifestyle, this other fancy car with a duct tape repair! Jajajaja! I thought only we did that. Maybe we can finally start building some cross-town connections?
Where do I sign up?
As an amateur anarchist I’m doing some research into establishing a small company to mold from plastic what I tentatively refer to as the “pseudo boot”. It would be bright orange but light as a feather (ergonomic for the elderly) and could be easily stored in the trunk, then applied as needed when the vehicle is parked for the night. I’d appreciate any feedback as to pros or cons of my idea, and hereby render up the rights for anyone to pursue this idea. It’s time we “functioning poor” gained some foothold over the repression threatening to strangle us.
When I drove I got the boot THREE times. I just didn’t learn. But in the 90s you could see a real judge and cry on the westside and they’d give you back your car if you promised to stick on a payment plan, which I never did, which is why I got the boot THREE times.
Now it’s all electronic and the human element is gone. I think they changed that in around 2002 or 2003. If I had to survive as a broke college student now, I couldn’t do it. I was the queen of getting an exception for all kinds of situations.
The first time I got the boot was when I was at some art show at the 01 Gallery on Melrose.
I have to say I drove around for year before they caught me and I was parking on the street. And I was at Mount St Mary’s the Brentwood campus, which is right by UCLA, so you can see why I got lots of tickets and my college status is why I never paid these tickets.
But I still laugh a little when I see one. You have to get six tickets and just throw them away to get a boot, so if you’re an actual adult I don’t know why you wouldn’t take care of that all you have to do is make a phone call on ticket number four, because most people who get the boot as adults have gotten one before they were adults. It’s a characteristic a particular kind of personality.
Browne
http://web.mit.edu/dryfoo/www/Info/boot.html
teaser: deflating your tire usually works.
Milwaukee sawzall will remove one of those “boot” things in 30 seconds. Pays to have good tools.