How worried should I be? I'm in SF for an internship (today is day 2). I booked an Airbnb for 3 months. Turns out the owners have bought a house into 6 "studios" so apparently I'm sharing this place with a whole bunch of people. The driveway fits two cars and theres a TON of competition for those spots. There is no street parking available (all occupied) anywhere nearby. I parked my car on mission street (it's a proper main street with streetlights and pedestrian crossings). Is it safe to leave it there overnight? I did not leave anything in the interior of the car. I borrowed my dad's relatively expensive car to come here so I could commute to work and I am extremely scared of someone vandalizing it as I cannot afford to repair it if something does happen. Is this safe? What should I do? I would really appreciate some sincere advice or tips as I am very scared of something happening to the car.
Oh child you shouldn’t bring a car to sf. Learn to use public transit.
It will most certainly get fucked up on mission street. Broken in to, dinged without a note You basically are checking off the SF things so far in your stay
Echoing the others, you’ll have to pony up for Uber/Lyft + get to know public transit. How far away does your dad live from SF? Can you/he pay for garage parking until you can get it back to him or he can retrieve it himself? Or bribe your housemates to let you park in the driveway until you can return the car?
Your car is going to be a magnet for municipal parking tickets. I bet the cops will give others your license to double team you. Just think, you’re getting the FULL San Francisco experience.
Why would they target my car specifically?
Parking in a zone without permit, too close to driveway, parking on street during street cleaning... you will get punished by enforcement, each of these guys thinks they’re the Dirty Harry of parking.
Thank you everyone for your responses. There is a motel nearby where the staff claims that they have never had any vandalism or break-in incidents because the lot is monitored 24/7 by staff and security cameras. They are charging $20/night for me to park there. I went ahead and paid them for tonight after hearing your advice. Now I am thinking long term. I can park my car at my company's parking lot for the remainder of my internship for free. Now, if I do that I would need to take uber or public transport to work everyday. How much would you say is the max I should pay for public transport per day? If my public transport costs come out to more than $600/month ($20 x 30), then perhaps I would be better off paying $20 per night to park my car at that motel. What do you think? Thank you guys so much.
Written you a card to your dad and use the fucking public transport
I would try to return the car if I could but the problem is that home is a 30 hour driver from SF. So I could maybe do it and then fly back on July 4th weekend but until then Im not going to get time off from work to drive my car back.
Where is work? Move closer to work
Work is in San Bruno. I couldn't find any short term leases. Also I'm locked into my current Airbnb for the next 28 days per the airbnb cancellation policy.
Bart or Caltrain from SF to San Bruno shouldn’t run you more than $10/day
Get rid of the car if you're in SF. Between the sleazy corrupt scum liberal government that everyone keeps reelecting who will extort you for every frivolous ticket under the sun and the criminals who will break into it even if the car is empty, you'll be in the hole thousands of dollars and thats before paying for parking or gas. Also hate to burst your bubble but work parking lots aren't safe either. Endless break-ins at almost every campus as well.
@gavinbsn you’re dad is going to hate you, but could you rent out your car on TURRO or another car sharing website to recoup costs if you really are in a bind. You’re dad is going to say no because of the depreciation it will cause, but if the car is older but nice then maybe it’s worthwhile.
Pay for parking in a access controlled garage. Use Uber and public transport. Yes it's a little expensive but I'd not mess around with my dad's car.
Take it as a life lesson. What you can do at this point is to return the car to a safe location and use a cheap car or Uber.