Beware if you hear: "I'm from the government and here to help."

Regular readers will remember a previous post about the parking situation along the south side of 16th Avenue North and Dixie Hwy.  You can read about the original details here.  

Well, it turns out that the owner of the MadHatter showed up at the Farmer Girl last Monday for Mayor Waterman's coffee or meet and greet - you can decide which it was, an act to connect to the public by the Mayor or a campaign stop.  This time of year it's hard to know.  Anyway, the owner of the MadHatter told Mayor Waterman of their trouble with the city and the elimination of parking along the north side of their building.  Upon hearing the story, she said something like don't worry, its done, I got you a no parking area 20 feet from the corner.  To which the owner responded that he would have been happy with 25 feet.  She said it was done at 20.  Then, in what probably was the next breath, how many signs do you need?  The owner said three, two for the business and one for their house.  The signs arrived right away. 

The city crew arrived today and painted over the scored area in the street that had been painted white before with black paint.  Then the yellow paint came out and the entire curb from the corner was painted to the point of the sign (above) - and essentially extended three feet beyond where the no parking area was before.  So Mayor Waterman's "it's done at 20" is now "it's done at 60 feet plus."  This large of a no parking area is problematic for deliveries too.

You can see the use to which the owners have put the Waterman signs that were delivered with such dispatch.  And the owners immediately tried to call the cell phone number on the Waterman door hanger and found that it was disconnected.  Huh.