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Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

mchap.io

181–190 of 248 posts

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#181
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be that generous. You park 15 mins longer than permitted once outside your workplace, and now your violent ex knows where you now work.

Your violent ex would know your license plate number, but not know where you work?

I'd wager most people switch jobs more often than they change license plate numbers.

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#182
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be that generous. You park 15 mins longer than permitted once outside your workplace, and now your violent ex knows where you now work.

Maybe. But I think the benefit to society of publicly knowing violations outweighs this potential abuse. Also, it would be a problem to allow government to secretly prosecute, even for very minor offenses.

I'm very skeptical about drawing a line from "not sharing license plate numbers tied to address of offense when it comes to traffic fines" to "secretly prosecute".

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#183
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you say is true. It's also the case that there's a lot of information that is nominally public--often for very defensible reasons--which historically took significant effort to get at and, even then, only in a very limited and manual way. Today, a lot of that information is at least a lot more accessible to everyone (though in this case it still took a lot of work) and, furthermore, it can be mashed up with othe…

Voter registration records being a perfect example - anyone can look up my address because the state makes it incredibly easy to pop my name into a website and there it is.

Of course, historically you could look up the address for most people through the white pages.

But that doesn't change the basic point. If you were to ask if you should be able to look up anyone's physical address by typing their name into a web page, I suspect many people would say no. Yet, here we are.

(I also suspect that many would be really shocked at the amount of info available about them from "deep web" searches much less via a $20 online background check.

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realise you're being positive and helpful, but I don't think many people could actually have these hobbies. The technical side is within reach of most HN readers, but you also need to see the problem in the first place and understand that it's actually solvable. Most people would assume that any effort would be wasted as the authorities would prefer to keep their revenue generator, so they'd never go through with t…

> but you also need to ... understand that [the problem is] actually solvable. Most people would assume that any effort would be wasted as the authorities would prefer to keep their revenue generator, so they'd never go through with the project. Any reasonable person would make such an assumption without a second thought. I'm still baffled that the city took any action whatsoever in response to this guy's request. Ho…

You’re making the common (and fatal) mistake of evaluating a government on the terms of a private business entity.

Governments are of the people so long as the people maintain them as such.

When you treat a government like a business, it falls behind on it’s maintenance schedule, and begins to resemble one. There are a lot of people who wish the government was their business, and will encourage you to play along. These people work night and day to lower your expectations of what you’re capable of.

Stop falling for it!

The USA had some ingenious (and flawed) founders who set in place some rights and traditions that reserve at least a small finger hold which resembles democracy, by which the people can mobilize effectively.

But, in any nation, that fingerhold can exist when enough people come together en masse.

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my area, there are places you have to "park and walk" to and places you can just drive to. Second category are the only ones that get my business.

How far a walk is too much for you?

I avoid having to deal with crosswalks if I can. I also regularly make a 1/2 mile drive to a fast food restaurant.

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my area, there are places you have to "park and walk" to and places you can just drive to. Second category are the only ones that get my business.

Do you live in a city or a suburb?

It's like a dense suburbish area. There are both plazas/malls/grocery stores with normal parking and areas set up like small imitation city blocks with parallel parking or no immediate parking. I don't like having to deal with street parking either unless it's a nice clear zone.

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#188
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When is...dear educated technologists...the last time you even slightly considered working for city government? Alas, our best and brightest aren't serving the people. They toil at advertising.

I tried to do so but never made it past their interviewing - which was glacially slow and involved a 1/10th chance all things equal even when there were multiple identical positions open. From what I could gather in many cases the agencies were often at the mercy of poor organization from above.

Hey, same here. I live in a very low cost state, so the pay was fantastic (especially compared to what I get now), the job security was there, the benefits were amazing... Unlike some folks, I'm perfectly willing to work for the government (mostly for the benefits).

They really wanted me in that job, too. But then the state froze hiring and several months later the posting expired. It hasn't been re-listed since then and it's been nearly a year now.

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#189
post #77
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm kind of on a negative streak these days, so forgive me, reader, but...why in god's green earth aren't these the government's hobbies?!

When is...dear educated technologists...the last time you even slightly considered working for city government? Alas, our best and brightest aren't serving the people. They toil at advertising.

Around two years ago. I applied for a data scientist role with the city of SF and never got a response.

Re: Using FOIA Data and Unix to halve major source of parking tickets

#190
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was free. I've never had to pay for any information coming from an Illinois FOIA request.

That's interesting. I've often had to pay small to medium-sized amounts - always reasonable, I might add - for the price of producing said information.

You can often request that the FOIA officer waive the fee so long as the public's interest outweighs the burden to collect and redact the info. That's almost certainly what happened with my IL requests.
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