Suit over 2 junker cars has cost city $71,320

[Liberal_in_LA]

Suit over 2 junker cars has cost city $71,320
C.W. Nevius

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Bob Kaufman is a real San Francisco character. He has as many as 11 cars scattered around the streets of Bayview, often gets cited by the police, and regularly sues the city.

"But I never win," he said Friday, when he poked his head out of the rusty and cluttered RV where he lives. "What it means to me is that the judges are corrupt."

But now Kaufman has something else - Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw, a high-powered international law firm. Although the Pillsbury Web site says the local office focuses on banking, technology and real estate, currently it is helping Kaufman get two junker cars back from a tow yard.

So far, the city is out $71,320 fighting what the city attorney's office insists is a frivolous lawsuit.

"What you have is this white shoe, downtown law firm using scorched-earth tactics to fight for the right to litter the neighborhood," said spokesman Matt Dorsey.

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Not quite. Court documents show that Kaufman has had "thirty to forty" cars towed over the last few years. It happens so often that he keeps copies of the city's tow hearing request forms in his RV. He's been a constant problem in the neighborhood. SFPD officer Pearl Rogers, who describes Kaufman as "eccentric," says she engaged in a cat-and-mouse game for months to get him to clean up litter, cars and odd items like a rusty lawnmower.

"This guy is out of control," said local resident Ken Stewart. "It's unbelievable. We need some help on this."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/23/BAA11BM6RJ.DTL#ixzz0dTOZc7Ua

[Historic NY]

1. Start putting them in the rich neighborhoods and we will see how quick things change..

its NIMBY