One of the reasons people have no sympathy for the District and its decapitated parking meters (“When Meters Expire,” 7/4) is that D.C. doesn’t use them for anything except revenue. The purpose of metered spaces is to provide money for keeping up the streets and to provide a regular turnover of parking to facilitate commerce.

The D.C. parking cops regularly allow cars to park all day as long as the meters are fed, or as parking meter security acting chief Ron Jackson says, “plugged.” So the city isn’t interested in facilitating parking for those who need to shop or do business, it is merely interested in the revenue.

“Two-Hour Parking” means nothing if you are willing to return every two hours and “plug the meter” with more quarters. And in many parts of D.C., that is cheaper than a garage space.

One other comment: Your article states that “citizens who champion (meter vandals) as modern-day Robin Hoods fail to recognize their own complicity in hastening the death of our city.” The quote speaks for itself. The speaker left no question that D.C. would die—it’s only a matter of how fast.

That belief—that the District government will do nothing effective to save the city, and that the citizenry cannot overcome the ineffective government—is what lies behind the abundance of ill will displayed through the parking-meter vandalism.

Arlington, Va.

via the Internet