I Got A Ticket For Having A Garage Sale!

Crazy World We Live In: Especially in San Ramon

Are you thinking about having an impromptu garage sale to get rid of your unwanted items. Well, think again. If the San Ramon City Council has its way, the impromptu garage sale will be a thing of the past or dare we say, a fine coming down your way if you do not register your garage sale with the city first. Yes, you could be breaking the law if you want to have a garage sale when your neighbor down the street has one, and you think, no big deal if we have ours too.

Council Members Scot Perkins and Carol Rowley are all for more laws on the books restricting freedoms. They sandwich their arguments for having a city wide garage sale registration program with saying things like, "added value," "additional advertising vehicle for sales," and "help reduce reliance on posters and signs."

The Contra Costa Times article states in the article: San Ramon garage sales could become regulated that, "The proposed garage sale restrictions -- which include limiting when and where residents can post signs and permitting garage sales to last no more than two days at a time -- are needed to discourage chronic garage sale impresarios, San Ramon officials said."

"There's the education element, there's the enforcement element and there's the added value to the resident," said San Ramon Councilman Scott Perkins. "I believe having a registration requirement serves residents by adding an additional advertising vehicle for their sales."

Such a feature might also help reduce residents' reliance on posters and signs to draw people to their events, said Councilwoman Carol Rowley.

Maybe San Ramon Needs More Laws on the Books.

Here are some ideas for the City Council to consider:

1. Garage doors must be kept closed at all times.

2. No basketball hoops in plain view of the street.

3. No parked cars on the streets in residential neighborhoods after 8:00 PM.

4. No commercial vehicles parked in driveways overnight.

5. No recreational vehicles parked in the street, even if relatives come to visit in their motor homes.

6. No blue, pink, black, orange, green, white, yellow, or red color houses with trims that are not color coordinated, or whatever color you don't like. (City needs to have everyone's house color go to the city architectural review committee for approval when repainting.)

7. The City needs to implement a snoop committee to report back to the architectural review committee, which reports back to the City Council. To make it easier on everyone; the snoop committee, the architectural review committee, and the City Council can be the same five members.

Wow, maybe the City Council thinks we live in the San Ramon Homeowners Association and needs to restrict even more of our freedoms.

I hope the City Council doesn't read this, because they just might think those are some great ideas for additional laws on the books.

And, while we're at it, you can say goodbye to having an entire homeowners association garage sale too. That would be way too many garage sales for one area at a time.

San Ramon Tribune
Editor