I’ve been a member of the Butler Cubs A.S.A. for about twenty-five years. My dad and my uncle and even my grandfather have been members at that Butler landmark going back to the 1950s. I’m not alone or special in this. That organization is full people that can say the exact same thing.

This is a big reason why I was surprised and disappointed to come out of the Butler Cubs A. S. A building to the metered parking lot on South McKean Street and find a meter violation parking ticket on my car.

The ticket was written at 11:47 p.m. June 30 — in the middle of the night, out of the blue, after 25 years of parking at that exact same space without any prior issue.

I was told by the city police that 24/7 meter enforcement has always been the ordinance but not always enforced. Until now.

In an article in this paper, Mayor Thomas Donaldson seemed to be “in the mood to tow some cars” and bemoaned that Butler’s parking enforcement was not more in line with Pittsburgh’s.

If the mayor or any other Butler official is so deferential to how Pittsburgh operates, then I would suggest there are plenty of elected offices, and plenty of available real estate there, and perhaps their political aspirations, as well as their residence, would more properly lie within the confines of that city and not this.

But my concern isn’t with the mayor. My concern is with the people who use the Cubs multiple times a week. Are the people involved with Specialty Outreach Services going to get covered in parking tickets?

Most of the people who go there aren’t going to feed the meters. They’re just going to stop going if you ticket them. How are they being reached if you do that?

How about Bingo night where you have a full parking lot? Are those folks all going to get tickets? Ticket those people and watch how fast Bingo night dies out down there.

How about the various and sundry basketball camps and leagues that draw huge crowds? Are they all going to get ticketed?

Or, is the new, unwritten policy that the city police just ticket, in whimsical fashion, who, where, and when they want?

I’m not a spokesman for the Cubs A.S.A. or any of the affiliates I just mentioned. I’m simply pointing out that if I got a ticket at this particular parking lot during off-hours, then anyone else can as well.