The classic case of elitism at its best. The elites get the parking spaces, CCW permits. And what do the "little people"(Billionairess Leona Hemsley, called the common people) get, the shaft. Here is the solution, send Inspector Harry Callahan to take away her parking permits.
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Los Angeles Times: Novelist Spurs Passion Over Parking

[url]http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-000032681may08.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dcalifornia[/url]

THE NATION
Novelist Spurs Passion Over Parking
Dispute: In crowded San Francisco, Danielle Steel has permits for 26 spaces.
City considers limits.
By JOHN M. GLIONNA
TIMES STAFF WRITER

May 8 2002

SAN FRANCISCO -- Romance novelist Danielle Steel is a woman of excess. She's
dashed off dozens of bestsellers, married five times, produced nine children and
inhabits a sprawling compound that commands sweeping views of Alcatraz Island
and the Golden Gate Bridge.

It turns out she has an appetite for parking places too.

The 54-year-old grande dame of fiction has amassed 26 residential permits in her
tony Pacific Heights neighborhood--more than any San Franciscan, city officials
say. The permits exempt the holders from the posted parking restrictions that
make parking on the street virtually impossible in many crowded neighborhoods.

In a traffic-clogged city where the number of cars dwarfs the number of parking
spaces, where residents can circle for hours to find a spot, Steel's penchant
for parking permits has unleashed passions not normally associated with her
50-odd romance novels.

There has not only been angry sniping from neighbors but also miffed letters to
the editor and a recent local newspaper headline that read: "Danielle's Parking
Orgy."

"No single-family home should ever be allowed to have 26 parking permits," said
Myron Zimmerman, who lives across the street from Steel. "It's way too
excessive. She already has a huge underground garage and extra outside parking
on her property. It puts people around here in a bind. If we have any kind of
social event, we've got to hire valet parkers."

Partially inspired by Steel's surplus, irked city officials Thursday will
consider limiting the number of parking permits to three per household. Under
present law, residents can buy an unlimited number of permits--at $27 per year
each.

San Francisco has the nation's largest per-square-mile number of registered
vehicles and one of the smallest numbers of per-capita parking spaces. About
500,000 vehicles compete each weekday for 320,000 street parking spaces,
statistics show.

Crowded into 49 densely packed square miles, residents often wait two years for
garage rental space. People wind up parking on sidewalks, often to find
themselves later boxed in by other parking scofflaws.

-- continued --

Police issue 100,000 parking tickets annually specifically for sidewalk parking.

Not surprisingly, parking is a major revenue source for San Francisco. In the
next two years, officials plan to install 25,000 electronic meters--many of
which will accept as payment an ATM-style Translink card--a move that could
boost the city's annual take from the current $12.6 million to more than $18
million.

City officials said the uproar over Steel's parking permits signals a
frustration felt by nearly every San Franciscan.

"Parking is at an extraordinary premium in this city, and the issue is
definitely the biggest complaint we face as city officials," Supervisor Gavin
Newsom said. "People hate to have to park on the sidewalk, and it moves them to
organize so their voice is heard at City Hall."

The parking issue recently prompted "one of the most acrimonious public
meetings" Newsom said he'd attended. "No one wanted to talk about homelessness
or affordable housing," he said. "What they wanted to talk about were parking
permits."

Not Steel. The prolific author whose books--including "Bittersweet," "The Gift"
and "Fine Things"--have been translated into 28 languages in 47 countries,
declined to discuss the permit controversy.

In 1988, the author and her then-husband, John Traina, a shipping consultant,
paid $8 million for the home many consider the most elegant in San Francisco.
Known as the "Parthenon of the West," the mansion once housed sugar king Claus
Spreckels and was the site of Frank Sinatra's nightclub Chez Joey.

Perched on a hill surrounded by other multimillion-dollar mansions, the home
features towering concrete walls, thick foliage and electronic surveillance. A
sign outside the garage door warns: "No Parking." Steel's permits cover four
Toyotas, three Mercedes, two Land Rovers, a Volvo, two antique 1940 Fords and a
2000 Jaguar, not to mention cars driven by her staff, records show.

When approached by a reporter, a man who said his name was Tony, Steel's parking
director, refused to comment and hustled the visitor out a side service door.

The move to limit parking permits was inspired last summer by Robert Kendrick,
who lives in a wealthy neighborhood near Steel's that also is plagued with
parking hassles. Kendrick parked numerous junk cars on area streets, prompting
several complaints.

Then, city officials checked their records and uncovered what they called
startling results.

Although 98% of 44,000 permit-holders had three permits or fewer, Kendrick and
Steel then had 29 and 22, respectively.

"We just never understood that such a loophole existed where people could hoard
these permits," said Newsom, who is sponsoring the new city parking permit
ordinance. "Since parking spaces are such a rare commodity, we need to treat
everyone fairly."

-- continued --

Greg Scott, president of a nearby homeowners association, said parking has been
an issue for years around Steel's mansion.

"At one point a few years back, when her children were younger, there were a
couple large vans--the kinds hotels use--to transport the kids, and they were
always parked on the street," he said.

Standing outside his consulate building near Steel's home, German Consul Klaus
Scheliga shook his head when asked about the author's parking permits.

"I do not want to get involved with local politics," he said. "But there is a
shortage of parking here. And all of her permits certainly do not help."

At the famous City Lights bookstore, which doesn't carry Steel's books, clerk
Richard Berman explained the issue this way: "Rich people get away with stuff
regular people don't."

Customer Victor Namuche agreed. "I live in super-crowded North Beach, but I
still get just one parking permit," he said. "I'd love to get 25 more to give
all my friends. But that's not the way the world works."

Parking officials hope that those parking discrepancies will soon be part of the
past.

"We never intended to provide cheap on-street parking storage for people with
too many vehicles," said Diana Hammons, a spokeswoman for the Department of
Parking and Traffic. "You can't own a dozen cars and expect to park them on city
streets."

If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at
latimes.com/archives. For information about reprinting this article, go to
www.lats.com/rights.

Those greedy SF bastards just want her to get the "chalk" mark on her tires for a ticket.

If I understand it correctly, the permit simply gives you the right to park. It doesn't give you a predefined spot. It's still first come, first served. All this means is she has the right to part a lot of cars, not that she will be able to find spaces for them all. But I guess she did.

From my readings, I get the same impression, you still have to find a parking space, just the SFPD won't ticket you. BUT does she have a bunch of cars, and she parks them on the street, and she moves them when she has guesses.....
I think SFPD should send Inspector Harry Callahan over to explain things to her.