Luis tried his own methods first. He bought a massive pack of neon-yellow sticky notes and spent his brief lunch breaks slapping direct messages across offenders’ windshields: This is a critical emergency lane. People could die when you park here. The notes were routinely crumpled up and tossed onto the pavement without a second thought.
“You’re wasting good adhesive, Doc,” a gravelly voice called out from across the street one sticky Tuesday afternoon. Luis turned to see Denise, a veteran city parking enforcement officer, sitting parked on her official white scooter.
She was casually munching on a ham sandwich, watching his desperate crusade with an amused smirk. “They don’t read paper,” Denise said, dusting crumbs off her high-visibility vest. “Guys driving those cars only start caring when it actually costs them. The parking tickets I write out will be just pocket money for them.”