Ernst Schoen-Rene, a tech worker and father, has filed so many complaints about scofflaw parking around Precita Park in Bernal that the city is now annoyed with him.

As he explained in an email to District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder:

I regularly report parking here on the 311 app, and the result is always the same. Within a few minutes, SFMTA closes the request with “officer responded, could not locate”. This is a lie. I live here and know that no officer responds.

Yesterday, I did an experiment. I reported the restaurant owner’s Porsche blocking the red zone. Sure enough, within 3 minutes, the report was closed with “officer responded, could not locate.” I was standing there, waiting. No-one came. I reported it again. It was closed again. I reported it again, and SFMTA dispatch called me to yell at me for reporting it too much (and bizarrely, for using the word ‘dude’ in my report)! 

But he complains so much, he said, because the city simply isn’t doing its job. And daylighting doesn’t make streets safer if violations are continually ignored.

“Any car that’s parked in the daylit zone is subject to enforcement,” wrote SFMTA’s Michael Roccaforte in an email to Streetsblog.

Fielder’s office has yet to reply to Schoen-Rene, who continues to worry that his middle-school-age son, or someone else’s child, is going to get clobbered because of the lack of enforcement. That’s especially concerning, considering the park is also right next to Leonard R. Flynn Elementary School.

Streetsblog also reached out to the supervisor and will update this post.

This is not to say that SFMTA has done nothing. A bike corral at the T-intersection with Presita Avenue and Harrison helps keep that daylighting area clear next to the crosswalk.

This bike corral protected the daylighting zone at one of the park entrances. Photo: Streetsblog/Rudick

“Using the bike corral is a resource-efficient way to build out bike infrastructure while bringing better visibility to an intersection,” explained Roccaforte.

And what about the drivers who continue to block the many remaining paint-only daylighting zones with impunity? Greg Lutes, owner of the oft-illegally parked Porsche, pulled up as Streetsblog was surveying the area. He said he’s gotten eight tickets in the past year, “usually for street cleaning” in other parts of San Francisco. He said he’s gotten only one ticket in the past year for parking in the red zone outside his restaurant, Precita Social. But he said he parks there “only for a few minutes.”

Of course, the owner of a $100,000 car is not going to stop parking illegally over a once-a-year $108 ticket. But he would have no choice but to comply with parking restrictions if all the daylighting zones had a bike rack or a chunk of granite. He might also respond to towing. The same goes for the driver in the picture below, who left his Hummer in the crosswalk right across from the elementary school.

This driver left his Hummer in the crosswalk at the elementary school. Photo: Streetsblog/Rudick

“We look forward to expanding the network of hardened daylighting to ensure compliance and keep our intersections safe,” added Roccaforte.

Meanwhile, Schoen-Rene told Streetsblog there’s no question in his mind that daylighting zones help when they’re not blocked. All he asks of the city is that they put some bike racks or planters or another object in all the zones adjacent to the park so Lutes and others like him can’t park there, not for a few minutes, not for a few hours.

Ernst Schoen-Rene at the offending corner. Photo: Streetsblog/Rudick