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Repairing Your Car in Your Own Garage Is Considered Illegal in Sacramento, CA

320 points by josephcsible 4y ago

cobertos 4y ago
Why didn't they just ordinance the noise or the improper disposal of chemicals if those are their concerns? Local laws always seem so reactionary and poorly thought out.
- NotYourLawyer 4y ago
  Harder to catch those in the act.
  - cataphract 4y ago
    God forbid should the bar for depriving people of their property be high.
- bell-cot 4y ago
  > Local laws always seem so reactionary and poorly thought out. Try attending a few City Council meetings, and observe the mental acuity and time frames of the Council members, and citizens who speak up during Public Comments.
- pwg 4y ago
  > if those are their concerns? Likely because those are not their "real" concerns, but they can't legislate their "real" concerns (because those would be illegal due to other statutes). So they try an 'end-run' around the "real" concerns by dreaming up something vague like this that can be "extended" to cover most anything at the discretion of the local enforcement officer.
JacobThreeThree 4y ago
The Sacramento municipal code the article links to is giving a 404: http://www.per.saccounty.net/LandUseRegulationDocuments/Documents/Zoning%20Code%20Final%20Adopted%20July%2022%202015/Updates%20to%202015%20Zoning%20Code/Effective%20May%2011%2C%202018/Zoning%20Code%20Effective%20September%2025%2C%202015%20%5B05-11-2018%5D.pdf http://www.per.saccounty.net/LandUseRegulationDocuments/Docu...
- vageli 4y ago
  Here's a snapshot from August: https://web.archive.org/web/20220815181411/https://www.code-enforcement.saccounty.net/Programs/pages/autorepair.aspx https://web.archive.org/web/20220815181411/https://www.code-...
stevehawk 4y ago
This has been a growing trend in the US. The old argument for rules like this was often "broke cars reduce home value", so it's fun to try and see them use the pro-environment card but it's really to push out poor people. Every once in a while there's a city that makes a move like this because they are tired of broken down cars in poor neighborhoods and then end up repealing the rule when cops get uppity and apply it to middle/upper class people who are doing vehicle restorations in their driveways. The big bummer in rules like this is that the wealthy people in office that are enacting this legislation don't know what a "major" car repair is because they've never done any. And their definition of a 'special tool' is anything beyond their Craftsmen "Baby's First Toolbox".
- mc32 4y ago
  Can't there be a time limit to allow for repairs and restorations? A month, six months. Occasionally I'll come across a vehicle that has obviously been in the same place for years: cracked tires, oil spots and or larger weeds growing around. It's usually obvious when something is getting worked on vs something met its forever spot in the yard.
  - lrvick 4y ago
    Does not matter. If it is their property they should be able to stack cars in their yard and call it art if they want. Telling other people what they can do with their property is fundamentally reprehensible.
    - rhn_mk1 4y ago
      There's a limit to that. If you dump a barrel of something, and it leeches into the ground water, or washes out into the neighbor's yard, then what you do matters. Cars have fluids that aren't exactly environmentally friendly.
    - mschuster91 4y ago
      > Telling other people what they can do with their property is fundamentally reprehensible. One man's freedom ends where another man's freedom begins. Fine if you're doing small scale car repairs on your own car in a residential zone, not fine if the smell from your hacky welding job disrupts my enjoyment of my property. If you want to do shit that impacts your neighbors, go and rent a garage in an industrial or commercial zone.
LinuxBender 4y ago
In your garage, or in your driveway? How would anyone know what you are doing in your garage unless you are using the universal repair tool, a mallet or leaving your garage door open?
- jakogut 4y ago
  I have a 1965 Mustang I recently did some work on that required some grinding and welding. Grinding is quite loud. In a separate instance, I replaced a wheel hub bearing on a newer model Explorer, and I beat the old one with a four pound sledge for over an hour trying to get it out.
  - LinuxBender 4y ago
    I suppose this might force some people to install sound-proofing in their garage. It's amazing what layers of plyboard can do. I knew someone that played a drum-set in their garage and I could not even hear it 2 feet outside. This probably won't work with roll-up doors though. And for Sacramento during the summer I guess this only helps for people with air conditioning vents in the garage because it can get hot there.
  - post_break 4y ago
    You know what else is loud and is run every week? Leaf blowers, lawn mowers. Vs some grinding that may happen once a year.
    - treis 4y ago
      Lots of people want to ban those too. Or at least banning the small engine ones in favor of electric tools.
- asciimov 4y ago
  You must not be from the south. It's too damned hot most of the year to work in a closed garage, you gotta keep the garage door open so you don't die. Also, have you seen any modern garages? Most of them are too cramped to do any work in.
carapace 4y ago
This sounds bad but it's one of those laws that prevents trouble. (As an aside, I once signed a lease in San Francisco that was eleven pages thick, small print, and for each clause you could easily imagine the lawsuit that led to its inclusion in the lease terms.) I have a neighbor who has a cousin who does this. He gets old POS cars and then tries to get them running. It's not a bad hobby, but he does it in the street, and in other people's garage spots (the houses here have a small shared parking lot.) This is specifically called out as no-no in the lease. So when this dumbass tries to fix a car in my parking spot, I can call property management, and they can go talk to the guy and get him to understand that he has to move his POS lemon car right now or there's going to be a tow truck there in about twenty minutes. That's why laws like this exist: one dumbass ruining things for everybody.
- smbullet 4y ago
  You described exactly why this law isn't necessary. Property rights already exist and can be enforced without infringing on another's.
  - carapace 4y ago
    I think you're raising a good point. FWIW, I don't think working on your car should be an actual crime. That's messed up. I see this (the Sac law) as a sort of county-wide HOA rule. Sacramento is the seat of the state government, I bet there's some pressure to keep it looking nice, eh? Presumably folks voted for this law, yeah? As I grow older I find my attitude towards HOA-type rules is changing. When I was young I could put up with a lot of chaos around me, but now that I'm pushing fifty I feel like the advantages of the stricter rules are becoming more obvious and the disadvantages less onerous.
- cobertos 4y ago
  I don't think that is comparable. It's very different to do something in someone else's spot than in a spot you own and in a way that doesn't impact other people.
- akerl_ 4y ago
  The rule in your case is narrowly defined: the shared parking spaces are allocated to residents, and the rule makes sure that one person doesn't intrude on another person's allocated space. The rule in the article is not: it would make it a crime for your neighborhood dumbass to use his own allocated space to repair his car.
josh_fyi 4y ago
Home auto repairs are a way for the poor to gain an income and build skills. Large formal garages see that as competition and arrange for these laws to slap it down.
- mschuster91 4y ago
  > Home auto repairs are a way for the poor to gain an income and build skills. These people, of whom there are less and less every year anyway as modern cars are essentially a mixture of a server farm and a chemical plant on wheels, can always go and rent a dirt cheap plot in an industrial zone, instead of making their profit on the back of neighbors annoyed by someone running a commercial operation in a residential zone.
  - akerl_ 4y ago
    Sorry, what? Am I understanding you correctly that your recommendation is for lower income people to rent a plot of land somewhere just so that you don't have to deal with them using a specialty automotive tool in their garage?
    - mschuster91 4y ago
      > just so that you don't have to deal with them using a specialty automotive tool in their garage? FTFY: so that they don't run a commercial operation causing noise, emissions and traffic in a residential zone. Don't make profit off of just loading off the externality cost of your operation on the back of your neighbors. It's not that hard to grasp.
      - akerl_ 4y ago
        If I'm doing my repairs in my garage, what does it matter to you whether I'm constantly working on my personal cars or other people's cars?
        mschuster91 4y ago
Eumenes 4y ago
This is fascism
- lost_tourist 4y ago
  This... is... Sacramento!
- salad-fan 4y ago
  Two hilariously terrible takes in the span of 10 minutes. Keep going - this is just the entertainment I was looking for.
- humanistbot 4y ago
  I love to read HN because it reminds me that Carlin's law of averages [1] applies equally to the tech sector as everywhere else. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/43852-think-of-how-stupid-the-average-person-is-and-realize https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/43852-think-of-how-stupid-t...
  - Eumenes 4y ago
    I was being sarcastic. But I'd say this scary policy is more closely aligned with crony capitalism or a technocracy.
    - humanistbot 4y ago
      You have to put a /s these days, because any sufficiently advanced sarcasm or parody is indistinguishable from sincerity.
      - Eumenes 4y ago
        "This is fascism" should automatically qualify for "advanced sarcasm", right?!
dotBen 4y ago
Let's find some common sense here... This is one of those open ended laws that's designed to allow authorities to take action if a problem arises based on good judgement but most of the time you can ignore it it. If you use "specialist equipment" to perform an auto repair inside your closed garage no one is going to know. But if you are constantly repairing cars in your garage, it's likely that will cause a nuisance and you will get cited. This is just like a "no food or drink" ordinance on public transport - no one is going to enforce if you are sipping coffee from a travel mug or eating a candy but can enforce if you bring on a bag of McDonalds and leave it on the seats.
- mschuster91 4y ago
  I agree and while I am a supporter of such laws, I do see the problem of "selective enforcement" that these policies tend to bring with them. Either they apply for everyone, get enforced by everyone and the enforcement agencies are monitored for that, or it will get abused. For example, in a lot of public transport in Germany, alcohol consumption is banned, after young people partied and trashed trains too often. Enforcement is usually only limited to these people as well (and let's be real, it's disproportionately targeted towards non-white people), and people looking like managers or tradesmen don't get into trouble - obviously, young people are right to call that "double standards".
- akerl_ 4y ago
  A law that relies on the good judgement of the people enforcing it is a bad law, both because reasonable people can disagree on what constitutes "good" judgement and because the law needs to guard against both malicious and unintentional misuse of the state's power.
  - zeroonetwothree 4y ago
    Ultimately every law relies on judgment calls. It’s impossible to make laws 100% clear cut in all situations.
    - kortex 4y ago
bluedino 4y ago
You do have to worry about the home mechanic who buries all the old oil and antifreeze in his backyard, or pours it down the sewer, when they should be collecting it in containers and taking it down to the local auto parts store, they usually offer free disposal. In our township, you're not allowed to have a 'disabled' vehicle in your driveway. That means a vehicle that doesn't have current registration. You also can't park an RV or boat on your property for longer than 5 days in a row. And you can't park your vehicles on the grass. In high school a friend and I tore the engine and transmission out of his car, in his mom's driveway. After a couple days they got a letter from the township, and we had to push the car into the garage. There are no rules to what you can have or do inside of your garage (as long as it's illegal), which makes sense. We have a neighbor down the road with 6 cars in their driveway. Some don't have engines in them, some have a tarp over them, the rest they shuffle around parking in the street and such so they can go to work or wherever. It's a nuisance but nobody has yet to call in a complaint. I guess the worst case scenario is the unlicensed home mechanic who has several vehicles that are not theirs, in various states of disrepair, scattered all over the property. People are always waiting on parts, or money to fix the car, days turn to weeks, weeks turn to months...
- ryandrake 4y ago
  I'm with you on the "dumping oil and antifreeze down the sewer" part. And if they are cycling the cars onto street parking, that's not their property, and I can see disallowing that. But the rest? I don't understand the motivation behind them. How is having non-working vehicles on your own property a "nuisance" to others? How is having car tires touching grass instead of concrete a nuisance? None of these things make sense. If the goal is to prevent people from running professional repair shops in residential areas, we have business permitting and laws just for that. Enforce them instead, don't penalize homeowners who want to work on a few cars as a hobby.
  - bluedino 4y ago
    > And if they are cycling the cars onto street parking, that's not their property, and I can see disallowing that. It's annoying but it's perfectly legal to park in the street here. > But the rest? Because nobody wants to live next to this: https://imgur.com/a/zfF7IC4 https://imgur.com/a/zfF7IC4
duxup 4y ago
I don't like this law. But I did live in a town home association where a guy with a one car garage started his own sorta secret cheap ass repair business. At random tools you had lots of noise from air tools and so on. He claimed the cars were his (and some seemed to be, broken down... leaking oil) but we had people come buy and ask us where they should drop off their car for that guy. Rando cars in the neighborhood was a problem for everyone. I had 3 cars towed that parked in my driveway (my house number was similar to his) and was angrily confronted by two of those "friends" (customers) about it. Took a while to get the dude kicked out of the neighborhood / association. Gotta be some way to let responsible enthusiasts do their thing and take issue with folks with those who leave junk cars out and etc.
- x86x87 4y ago
  Usually HOAs have strict rules about running a business out of your home. Also, this is not about the cars or the repairs. This is a jackass that thinks he can skirt common sense and rules. Noise? Noise complain. Leaking oil? EPA. Parking all over the place? Towing.
  - duxup 4y ago
    Oh they did and he violated them. But strict rules doesn’t necessarily provide for a quick resolution.
mrcode007 4y ago
In San Francisco, it is illegal to repair and test non-stationary motors in residential zone simply due to noise it generates. I report every instance of a neighbor trying to repair a motorcycle next to my window on a sidewalk while I’m trying to work. https://www.sfdph.org/dph/files/ehsdocs/ehsnoise/guidelinesnoiseenforcement.pdf https://www.sfdph.org/dph/files/ehsdocs/ehsnoise/guidelinesn... https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/san_francisco/latest/sf_police/0-0-0-6496 https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/san_francisco/latest/s...
- petermcneeley 4y ago
  Right to repair nimbyism.
  - mrcode007 4y ago
    Plenty of warehouses and repair shops for rent in non-residential zones for $30/sq ft/year Edit: something also worth considering is extremely high correlation of academic outcomes and noise pollution levels. It’s been widely documented to affect learning and brain performance. The evidence is so widely established that in NYC it is forbidden to idle engines in front of schools for more than 1 minute. Now you have to weigh the benefits. Should the law be tilted to satisfy needs of an individual trying to fix their motor and negatively affect multiple other individuals, or should the interested party get to the designated repair zone in which case it only affects that single individual.
    - inetknght 4y ago
      > Plenty of warehouses and repair shops for rent in non-residential zones for $30/sq ft/year That's quite expensive compared to the cost already being paid for a home!
      - mrcode007 4y ago
        Sure. That’s why professional repair shops exist that can do things for you for cheaper. It’s called comparative advantage in economics and leads to emergence of trade and economies. Compare with rural Nepal, where everyone can and does nearly everything on their own and you see it leads to a never ending cycle of poverty. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage
jostmey 4y ago
This law is intended to stop shady repair cap repair-people from working in residential areas. Fine. This begs the question as to why so many citizens are running repair shops from their own homes? Could it be that it is too hard to start a business in a legitimate manner?
- jasonhansel 4y ago
  How is such a business necessarily illegitimate? I don't think it's always illegal (except in Sacramento, apparently).
samtho 4y ago
I live in Sacramento and I happen to also do work on my own cars. This law has not been formally challenged and suspect it won’t hold up if actually done. This law has been used to to persecute car enthusiasts by their neighbors who work on cars a lot and it’s honestly disgusting. Other than direct complaints, however, the law has not been actively enforced. I’m the last 12 months at my home in a historically low-income neighborhood, I’ve done a clutch job (clutch, flywheel, throw-out bearing, rear main seal), coolant tank and hose swap, radiator fan swap, popping out minor dents, touch up paint work, oil and filter change, spark plug change, cabin and intake filter swap, and probably some other stuff. Never once had code enforcement or Sac PD come knocking. Granted, I have a lot of privilege that not everyone has: I am white, fairly well-off, I can do work in the privacy of my fenced-off backyard or 1-1/2 car garage, I know many of the people who work in city inspections and code enforcement (who I have asked about the law specifically and everyone says it’s only been enforced by these departments during hoarding situations, unsure about SacPD). My partner (who restores classic European cars with her dad) and I often help our neighbors by loaning tools, provide an extra hand, and on two occasions, offered our backyard to do the repair, with the condition it is done within a few days. I’m not worried about being caught personally because it’s such a low priority “crime” that won’t be investigated for days if at all and would require someone to actively report it. I do think it’s important to share one’s privilege which is one of the reasons why my partner and I are very keen on helping our especially low-income neighbors. These people often have a job they must be present at and cannot afford a costly repair or a new vehicle, penalizing them for trying to maintain their own property is an egregious and unnecessary overreach that actively perpetuates “illegal to be poor” we so desperately need to move beyond.
- TigeriusKirk 4y ago
  I'm out in the far reaches of Sacramento County where it's mostly small farms and large lots. People pretty much do what they want and enforcement only comes around if someone makes an issue of things. Mostly there's a tacit agreement to mind your own business and everyone sticks to it.
  - ghaff 4y ago
ponow 4y ago
This is so depressing.
kortex 4y ago
Would love to see a straw poll of what these lawmakers consider "tools not normally found in a residence". Oscilloscope? Not "normally" found in a residence (I would say <10% of households have one). Can be used to study engine timing (exactly what I'm doing at the moment to fix my ride-on). In my humble garage shop, I also have, lets see... OBD2 reader, specialty 12-point driver bits, a precision lab scale, a bunch of old Starrett metrology tools, oxymap torch, HHO gas generator, etc., are those normally found in a residence? These "I know it when I see it" kinds of laws are terrible.
thefz 4y ago
Land of the free*
bastardoperator 4y ago
Close the garage door?
giantg2 4y ago
"Repairing Your Car in Your Own Garage Is Considered Illegal in Sacramento, CA" Yep, and so are many basic home repairs in NYC. It seems these restrictions are more common in areas with higher populations and also as fewer people do their own work. Some of this may be in the name of safety, the environment, etc. However, the actual law tends to be overkill since they don't tailor it to specific actions causing the potential harms.
- chasd00 4y ago
  is there an auto repair union in Sacramento? that's where i'd first look to the source of the law.
- NegativeLatency 4y ago
  Out of curiosity what home repairs are illegal?
1letterunixname 4y ago
This would've prevented my grandfather from transitioning from the military to becoming a mechanic for 30 years, and from doing any of his own repairs at home. Whether someone creates an eyesore or hazmat site comes down to their character. Next, California will concoct a law stating soldering electronics is illegal because lead solder might be used. These are laws targeting blue-collar tradespeople suggesting they are beneath contempt.
- diydsp 4y ago
  Present American culture is at risk of losing the values of self-made people. An unsympathetic lawmaker might respond to your story by saying your grandfather should not have become a mechanic through that path, but by following the basic, mainstream path of going into debt for schooling, then going into debt to own a shop. The underlying perspective of certain people in power is to keep everyone indentured so they cannot disrupt the ruling class. This is a seachange since the founding of the country in which the intention was for as many people to be free as possible - slaves not withstanding!
candyman 4y ago
I visited LA this year and in fancy neighborhoods you still park on the street but you are not allowed to leave your car in the same spot for more than 72 hours or they ticket and tow. BUT if you are living in your vehicle the rule doesn’t apply. Gotta love those CA regulations!
SaintSeiya84 4y ago
you pay for my house? my car? my bills? no? then shut up, I do whatever I want with my property that I paid for. Is not your business what I do here, if you think that lowers 'your property value' that's your problem not mine, pay me then for not lowering yours, entitled kid, or do stuff on your own backyard to increase it. Seriously the amount of power we have given others over our private property is maddening. HOAs and ordinances should be limited to common areas only. Private property is private, period.
teh_klev 4y ago
Original article by Jalopnik that this one is a re-heat of: https://jalopnik.com/sacramento-county-says-its-illegal-to-work-on-your-own-1836085130 https://jalopnik.com/sacramento-county-says-its-illegal-to-w...
thefurdrake 4y ago
You can tell the law's premise (It's about people dumping chemicals! Think about the $HealthConcerns!vague, gasp) is a bunch of nonsense by how its actions (No maintaining cars) don't actually address those concerns directly. Hell, the premise CLAIMS that it's about dangerous chemicals, but still allows the most common interaction with dangerous chemicals a normal car owner will perform (an oil change), There has to be a term for this. It's super common, but I don't think "Disingenuous lie of a piece of legislation" rolls off the tongue as well as a proper term for a law which is defined/described to perform one function but is obviously meant to perform another. The premise is also completely unenforceable. Who's going to go into someone's garage and inspect the state of their vehicles to determine if they're in a state of (active or not) disrepair and being worked on, or if "Ted Across The Street Opened His Garage Door And It's Messy In There How Uncouth"?
- cheriot 4y ago
  Usually laws like this are anti-poor so I just call them that. Municipal governments have been turned into HOAs and the median American voter wants to live in an exclusive neighborhood. It's sad how badly these suburban utopia views distort society and the economy.
  - dragonwriter 4y ago
    > Municipal governments have been turned into HOAs HOAs were just a hack around municipal governments being prohibited from engaging in certain acts (mostly, racial discrimination); municipal governments have always been like HOAs, otherwise.
r053bud 4y ago
Cool, this is where civil disobedience comes in and they can go through the hassle of enforcing this on me. Next thing they are going to make it illegal to work on my house myself.
mbg721 4y ago
It's interstate commerce for sure.
aposm 4y ago
There's an easy solution if the law is truly intended just to prevent unlicensed pop-up repair shops - just ban unauthorized _commercial_ repair. In fact, that's almost certainly already prohibited by regular residential zoning. It's obvious this law is written as broadly as possible with the intention of allowing selective enforcement.
blindstitch 4y ago
Since Shelly v. Kraemer in USA it's illegal to write zoning code that explicitly excludes poor/black people from an area. The main way it is enforced now is by writing code that prohibits anything but single family homes in an area or setting a minimum lot size to indirectly force prices upward. Residential zoning isn't all bad in theory but it is still an effective tool for creating housing areas that are segregated by class.
- screamingninja 4y ago
  > it's illegal to write zoning code that explicitly excludes poor/black people from an area. The main way it is enforced... I follow your reasoning about discrimination based on economic background but you lost me at "black people". Economic segregation is taking place, yes, but how is this racial discrimination in any sense?
  - blindstitch 4y ago
    Black people make up a much smaller proportion of the upper income deciles so forcing prices upwards in an area makes it less diverse by default.
flenserboy 4y ago
It would not surprise me to see this sort of law popping up as a way of protecting particular businesses — home repairs, computer repairs, and the like could be made to fall under similarly vague regulations.
cjtrowbridge 4y ago
There are no laws that are actually fully enforced. The choice of when and where to enforce what rules falls to whoever is in charge of enforcement, and they use the rules only when it helps to enforce the unspoken and unwritten rules in society. The role of rule-enforcement in society is to punish whatever the individual agent perceives as deviance, not to enforce the law or to "serve and protect."
SNosTrAnDbLe 4y ago
Another unrelated thing that I discovered while buying my Audi in California is that I have to have to purchase the services from the same dealer as well.
ourmandave 4y ago
What if I fix my John Deere tractor in my drive way? And I use iPhone parts to do it?
_yb2s 4y ago
As a car enthusiast that mostly had to work on my cars outdoors in parking lots for most of my young adulthood, owning my own home with a garage was a huge milestone in my life. Make no mistake- I was excited about the garage, not the home- and without the garage I wouldn't have bought it! Shortly after buying this home, the HOA passed a new rule that strictly banned all car maintenance, even in my own garage, even if the garage door were closed. The other people in the community (elderly retired urban white collar workers) could not understand at all why this was such an issue for me, but I felt like my home had been stolen from me. They had blocked me from using my own home for the main reason I had purchased it. I was really stressed about this, and couldn't sleep for months I was so angry... and I eventually had to just sell the place and move. I find the attitude that doing real work with your own hands is "low class" disgusting. I grew up upper middle class in a family of scientists and engineers, where I learned a sense of pride in doing things myself, with my own hands... and that having to pay someone to, e.g. fix your own car for you is disgraceful. It's something a functional adult should be able to do for themselves. It infantilizes you and renders you helpless when you are, e.g. broken down in a remote place and can't just call for help. You can better thrive in a high tech world if you deeply understand your tools and machines, and fix and maintain them yourself. It also lets you build a connection with the machine that is rewarding. I feel I can trust my vehicles with my life, because I maintain them with care, and know them inside and out.
- guerrilla 4y ago
  > The other people in the community (elderly white collar workers) could not understand at all why this was such an issue for me, but I felt like my home had been stolen from me. They had blocked me from using my own home for the main reason I had purchased it. I was really stressed about this, and couldn't sleep for months I was so angry... and I eventually had to just sell the place and move. I'm really sorry, that sounds terrible. It sucks to be so powerless in the face of such injustice. I think you made the right decision though. There's only so much one can do in such a situation. It's best to accept one is beat and do what one can with what's left. A hard lesson of maturity but a better life in the long-run.
- xirdstl 4y ago
  I agree that the attitude that doing real work is "low class" is disgusting. I also think the attitude that paying someone to fix your car "is disgraceful" is disgusting.
wiskinator 4y ago
Anecdotally, there is a correlation between being poor and working on your own car. There is likely an aspect of this law that is rich HoA members not wanting to live near poorer families, or at the very least be able to control what they do. Remember also that in this country race / ethnicity still correlates strongly with financial stability. So this law is basically "I don't want my Latino neighbors working on their cars".
- dsfyu404ed 4y ago
  In their defense, they'd probably get a stick up their ass over white neighbors wrenching on cars too.
egberts1 4y ago
Blasted bugger, I must have saved over $9,000 repairing my 3 old cars with my drive-up ramps. Nothing like cherry-picking engines, dropping transmissions, and bleeding the lines. Such a shame, Sacramento. So glad I moved out sometime ago.
ravenstine 4y ago
The day they get me for repairing my own car is the day they fine or jail me for distilling alcohol, burning wood in my fire pit, smoking grass, paying people under the table, jaywalking, playing music a few decibels too loud, and all the other illegal shit I do. Laws matter only so much as they are enforced. Under the current legal system, everything might as well be illegal, therefore you might as well do all the illegal things anyway.
amriksohata 4y ago
Corporate America makes me chuckle, meanwhile in European countries they are pushing for the exact opposite, the right to repair for consumers: https://repair.eu/ https://repair.eu/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_repair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_repair
TrispusAttucks 4y ago
War against the self reliant.

320 points by josephcsible 4y ago

Why didn't they just ordinance the noise or the improper disposal of chemicals if those are their concerns? Local laws always seem so reactionary and poorly thought out.

NotYourLawyer 4y ago
Harder to catch those in the act.
- cataphract 4y ago
  God forbid should the bar for depriving people of their property be high.
bell-cot 4y ago
> Local laws always seem so reactionary and poorly thought out. Try attending a few City Council meetings, and observe the mental acuity and time frames of the Council members, and citizens who speak up during Public Comments.
pwg 4y ago
> if those are their concerns? Likely because those are not their "real" concerns, but they can't legislate their "real" concerns (because those would be illegal due to other statutes). So they try an 'end-run' around the "real" concerns by dreaming up something vague like this that can be "extended" to cover most anything at the discretion of the local enforcement officer.

JacobThreeThree 4y ago

The Sacramento municipal code the article links to is giving a 404: http://www.per.saccounty.net/LandUseRegulationDocuments/Documents/Zoning%20Code%20Final%20Adopted%20July%2022%202015/Updates%20to%202015%20Zoning%20Code/Effective%20May%2011%2C%202018/Zoning%20Code%20Effective%20September%2025%2C%202015%20%5B05-11-2018%5D.pdf http://www.per.saccounty.net/LandUseRegulationDocuments/Docu...

vageli 4y ago
Here's a snapshot from August: https://web.archive.org/web/20220815181411/https://www.code-enforcement.saccounty.net/Programs/pages/autorepair.aspx https://web.archive.org/web/20220815181411/https://www.code-...

stevehawk 4y ago

This has been a growing trend in the US. The old argument for rules like this was often "broke cars reduce home value", so it's fun to try and see them use the pro-environment card but it's really to push out poor people. Every once in a while there's a city that makes a move like this because they are tired of broken down cars in poor neighborhoods and then end up repealing the rule when cops get uppity and apply it to middle/upper class people who are doing vehicle restorations in their driveways. The big bummer in rules like this is that the wealthy people in office that are enacting this legislation don't know what a "major" car repair is because they've never done any. And their definition of a 'special tool' is anything beyond their Craftsmen "Baby's First Toolbox".

mc32 4y ago
Can't there be a time limit to allow for repairs and restorations? A month, six months. Occasionally I'll come across a vehicle that has obviously been in the same place for years: cracked tires, oil spots and or larger weeds growing around. It's usually obvious when something is getting worked on vs something met its forever spot in the yard.
- lrvick 4y ago
  Does not matter. If it is their property they should be able to stack cars in their yard and call it art if they want. Telling other people what they can do with their property is fundamentally reprehensible.
  - rhn_mk1 4y ago
    There's a limit to that. If you dump a barrel of something, and it leeches into the ground water, or washes out into the neighbor's yard, then what you do matters. Cars have fluids that aren't exactly environmentally friendly.
  - mschuster91 4y ago
    > Telling other people what they can do with their property is fundamentally reprehensible. One man's freedom ends where another man's freedom begins. Fine if you're doing small scale car repairs on your own car in a residential zone, not fine if the smell from your hacky welding job disrupts my enjoyment of my property. If you want to do shit that impacts your neighbors, go and rent a garage in an industrial or commercial zone.

LinuxBender 4y ago

In your garage, or in your driveway? How would anyone know what you are doing in your garage unless you are using the universal repair tool, a mallet or leaving your garage door open?

jakogut 4y ago
I have a 1965 Mustang I recently did some work on that required some grinding and welding. Grinding is quite loud. In a separate instance, I replaced a wheel hub bearing on a newer model Explorer, and I beat the old one with a four pound sledge for over an hour trying to get it out.
- LinuxBender 4y ago
  I suppose this might force some people to install sound-proofing in their garage. It's amazing what layers of plyboard can do. I knew someone that played a drum-set in their garage and I could not even hear it 2 feet outside. This probably won't work with roll-up doors though. And for Sacramento during the summer I guess this only helps for people with air conditioning vents in the garage because it can get hot there.
- post_break 4y ago
  You know what else is loud and is run every week? Leaf blowers, lawn mowers. Vs some grinding that may happen once a year.
  - treis 4y ago
    Lots of people want to ban those too. Or at least banning the small engine ones in favor of electric tools.
asciimov 4y ago
You must not be from the south. It's too damned hot most of the year to work in a closed garage, you gotta keep the garage door open so you don't die. Also, have you seen any modern garages? Most of them are too cramped to do any work in.

carapace 4y ago

This sounds bad but it's one of those laws that prevents trouble. (As an aside, I once signed a lease in San Francisco that was eleven pages thick, small print, and for each clause you could easily imagine the lawsuit that led to its inclusion in the lease terms.) I have a neighbor who has a cousin who does this. He gets old POS cars and then tries to get them running. It's not a bad hobby, but he does it in the street, and in other people's garage spots (the houses here have a small shared parking lot.) This is specifically called out as no-no in the lease. So when this dumbass tries to fix a car in my parking spot, I can call property management, and they can go talk to the guy and get him to understand that he has to move his POS lemon car right now or there's going to be a tow truck there in about twenty minutes. That's why laws like this exist: one dumbass ruining things for everybody.

smbullet 4y ago
You described exactly why this law isn't necessary. Property rights already exist and can be enforced without infringing on another's.
- carapace 4y ago
  I think you're raising a good point. FWIW, I don't think working on your car should be an actual crime. That's messed up. I see this (the Sac law) as a sort of county-wide HOA rule. Sacramento is the seat of the state government, I bet there's some pressure to keep it looking nice, eh? Presumably folks voted for this law, yeah? As I grow older I find my attitude towards HOA-type rules is changing. When I was young I could put up with a lot of chaos around me, but now that I'm pushing fifty I feel like the advantages of the stricter rules are becoming more obvious and the disadvantages less onerous.
cobertos 4y ago
I don't think that is comparable. It's very different to do something in someone else's spot than in a spot you own and in a way that doesn't impact other people.
akerl_ 4y ago
The rule in your case is narrowly defined: the shared parking spaces are allocated to residents, and the rule makes sure that one person doesn't intrude on another person's allocated space. The rule in the article is not: it would make it a crime for your neighborhood dumbass to use his own allocated space to repair his car.

josh_fyi 4y ago

Home auto repairs are a way for the poor to gain an income and build skills. Large formal garages see that as competition and arrange for these laws to slap it down.

mschuster91 4y ago
> Home auto repairs are a way for the poor to gain an income and build skills. These people, of whom there are less and less every year anyway as modern cars are essentially a mixture of a server farm and a chemical plant on wheels, can always go and rent a dirt cheap plot in an industrial zone, instead of making their profit on the back of neighbors annoyed by someone running a commercial operation in a residential zone.
- akerl_ 4y ago
  Sorry, what? Am I understanding you correctly that your recommendation is for lower income people to rent a plot of land somewhere just so that you don't have to deal with them using a specialty automotive tool in their garage?
  - mschuster91 4y ago
    > just so that you don't have to deal with them using a specialty automotive tool in their garage? FTFY: so that they don't run a commercial operation causing noise, emissions and traffic in a residential zone. Don't make profit off of just loading off the externality cost of your operation on the back of your neighbors. It's not that hard to grasp.
    - akerl_ 4y ago
      If I'm doing my repairs in my garage, what does it matter to you whether I'm constantly working on my personal cars or other people's cars?
      - mschuster91 4y ago

Eumenes 4y ago

This is fascism

lost_tourist 4y ago
This... is... Sacramento!
salad-fan 4y ago
Two hilariously terrible takes in the span of 10 minutes. Keep going - this is just the entertainment I was looking for.
humanistbot 4y ago
I love to read HN because it reminds me that Carlin's law of averages [1] applies equally to the tech sector as everywhere else. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/43852-think-of-how-stupid-the-average-person-is-and-realize https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/43852-think-of-how-stupid-t...
- Eumenes 4y ago
  I was being sarcastic. But I'd say this scary policy is more closely aligned with crony capitalism or a technocracy.
  - humanistbot 4y ago
    You have to put a /s these days, because any sufficiently advanced sarcasm or parody is indistinguishable from sincerity.
    - Eumenes 4y ago
      "This is fascism" should automatically qualify for "advanced sarcasm", right?!

dotBen 4y ago

Let's find some common sense here... This is one of those open ended laws that's designed to allow authorities to take action if a problem arises based on good judgement but most of the time you can ignore it it. If you use "specialist equipment" to perform an auto repair inside your closed garage no one is going to know. But if you are constantly repairing cars in your garage, it's likely that will cause a nuisance and you will get cited. This is just like a "no food or drink" ordinance on public transport - no one is going to enforce if you are sipping coffee from a travel mug or eating a candy but can enforce if you bring on a bag of McDonalds and leave it on the seats.

mschuster91 4y ago
I agree and while I am a supporter of such laws, I do see the problem of "selective enforcement" that these policies tend to bring with them. Either they apply for everyone, get enforced by everyone and the enforcement agencies are monitored for that, or it will get abused. For example, in a lot of public transport in Germany, alcohol consumption is banned, after young people partied and trashed trains too often. Enforcement is usually only limited to these people as well (and let's be real, it's disproportionately targeted towards non-white people), and people looking like managers or tradesmen don't get into trouble - obviously, young people are right to call that "double standards".
akerl_ 4y ago
A law that relies on the good judgement of the people enforcing it is a bad law, both because reasonable people can disagree on what constitutes "good" judgement and because the law needs to guard against both malicious and unintentional misuse of the state's power.
- zeroonetwothree 4y ago
  Ultimately every law relies on judgment calls. It’s impossible to make laws 100% clear cut in all situations.
  - kortex 4y ago

bluedino 4y ago

You do have to worry about the home mechanic who buries all the old oil and antifreeze in his backyard, or pours it down the sewer, when they should be collecting it in containers and taking it down to the local auto parts store, they usually offer free disposal. In our township, you're not allowed to have a 'disabled' vehicle in your driveway. That means a vehicle that doesn't have current registration. You also can't park an RV or boat on your property for longer than 5 days in a row. And you can't park your vehicles on the grass. In high school a friend and I tore the engine and transmission out of his car, in his mom's driveway. After a couple days they got a letter from the township, and we had to push the car into the garage. There are no rules to what you can have or do inside of your garage (as long as it's illegal), which makes sense. We have a neighbor down the road with 6 cars in their driveway. Some don't have engines in them, some have a tarp over them, the rest they shuffle around parking in the street and such so they can go to work or wherever. It's a nuisance but nobody has yet to call in a complaint. I guess the worst case scenario is the unlicensed home mechanic who has several vehicles that are not theirs, in various states of disrepair, scattered all over the property. People are always waiting on parts, or money to fix the car, days turn to weeks, weeks turn to months...

ryandrake 4y ago
I'm with you on the "dumping oil and antifreeze down the sewer" part. And if they are cycling the cars onto street parking, that's not their property, and I can see disallowing that. But the rest? I don't understand the motivation behind them. How is having non-working vehicles on your own property a "nuisance" to others? How is having car tires touching grass instead of concrete a nuisance? None of these things make sense. If the goal is to prevent people from running professional repair shops in residential areas, we have business permitting and laws just for that. Enforce them instead, don't penalize homeowners who want to work on a few cars as a hobby.
- bluedino 4y ago
  > And if they are cycling the cars onto street parking, that's not their property, and I can see disallowing that. It's annoying but it's perfectly legal to park in the street here. > But the rest? Because nobody wants to live next to this: https://imgur.com/a/zfF7IC4 https://imgur.com/a/zfF7IC4

duxup 4y ago

I don't like this law. But I did live in a town home association where a guy with a one car garage started his own sorta secret cheap ass repair business. At random tools you had lots of noise from air tools and so on. He claimed the cars were his (and some seemed to be, broken down... leaking oil) but we had people come buy and ask us where they should drop off their car for that guy. Rando cars in the neighborhood was a problem for everyone. I had 3 cars towed that parked in my driveway (my house number was similar to his) and was angrily confronted by two of those "friends" (customers) about it. Took a while to get the dude kicked out of the neighborhood / association. Gotta be some way to let responsible enthusiasts do their thing and take issue with folks with those who leave junk cars out and etc.

x86x87 4y ago
Usually HOAs have strict rules about running a business out of your home. Also, this is not about the cars or the repairs. This is a jackass that thinks he can skirt common sense and rules. Noise? Noise complain. Leaking oil? EPA. Parking all over the place? Towing.
- duxup 4y ago
  Oh they did and he violated them. But strict rules doesn’t necessarily provide for a quick resolution.

mrcode007 4y ago

In San Francisco, it is illegal to repair and test non-stationary motors in residential zone simply due to noise it generates. I report every instance of a neighbor trying to repair a motorcycle next to my window on a sidewalk while I’m trying to work. https://www.sfdph.org/dph/files/ehsdocs/ehsnoise/guidelinesnoiseenforcement.pdf https://www.sfdph.org/dph/files/ehsdocs/ehsnoise/guidelinesn... https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/san_francisco/latest/sf_police/0-0-0-6496 https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/san_francisco/latest/s...

petermcneeley 4y ago
Right to repair nimbyism.
- mrcode007 4y ago
  Plenty of warehouses and repair shops for rent in non-residential zones for $30/sq ft/year Edit: something also worth considering is extremely high correlation of academic outcomes and noise pollution levels. It’s been widely documented to affect learning and brain performance. The evidence is so widely established that in NYC it is forbidden to idle engines in front of schools for more than 1 minute. Now you have to weigh the benefits. Should the law be tilted to satisfy needs of an individual trying to fix their motor and negatively affect multiple other individuals, or should the interested party get to the designated repair zone in which case it only affects that single individual.
  - inetknght 4y ago
    > Plenty of warehouses and repair shops for rent in non-residential zones for $30/sq ft/year That's quite expensive compared to the cost already being paid for a home!
    - mrcode007 4y ago
      Sure. That’s why professional repair shops exist that can do things for you for cheaper. It’s called comparative advantage in economics and leads to emergence of trade and economies. Compare with rural Nepal, where everyone can and does nearly everything on their own and you see it leads to a never ending cycle of poverty. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage

jostmey 4y ago

This law is intended to stop shady repair cap repair-people from working in residential areas. Fine. This begs the question as to why so many citizens are running repair shops from their own homes? Could it be that it is too hard to start a business in a legitimate manner?

jasonhansel 4y ago
How is such a business necessarily illegitimate? I don't think it's always illegal (except in Sacramento, apparently).

samtho 4y ago

I live in Sacramento and I happen to also do work on my own cars. This law has not been formally challenged and suspect it won’t hold up if actually done. This law has been used to to persecute car enthusiasts by their neighbors who work on cars a lot and it’s honestly disgusting. Other than direct complaints, however, the law has not been actively enforced. I’m the last 12 months at my home in a historically low-income neighborhood, I’ve done a clutch job (clutch, flywheel, throw-out bearing, rear main seal), coolant tank and hose swap, radiator fan swap, popping out minor dents, touch up paint work, oil and filter change, spark plug change, cabin and intake filter swap, and probably some other stuff. Never once had code enforcement or Sac PD come knocking. Granted, I have a lot of privilege that not everyone has: I am white, fairly well-off, I can do work in the privacy of my fenced-off backyard or 1-1/2 car garage, I know many of the people who work in city inspections and code enforcement (who I have asked about the law specifically and everyone says it’s only been enforced by these departments during hoarding situations, unsure about SacPD). My partner (who restores classic European cars with her dad) and I often help our neighbors by loaning tools, provide an extra hand, and on two occasions, offered our backyard to do the repair, with the condition it is done within a few days. I’m not worried about being caught personally because it’s such a low priority “crime” that won’t be investigated for days if at all and would require someone to actively report it. I do think it’s important to share one’s privilege which is one of the reasons why my partner and I are very keen on helping our especially low-income neighbors. These people often have a job they must be present at and cannot afford a costly repair or a new vehicle, penalizing them for trying to maintain their own property is an egregious and unnecessary overreach that actively perpetuates “illegal to be poor” we so desperately need to move beyond.

TigeriusKirk 4y ago
I'm out in the far reaches of Sacramento County where it's mostly small farms and large lots. People pretty much do what they want and enforcement only comes around if someone makes an issue of things. Mostly there's a tacit agreement to mind your own business and everyone sticks to it.
- ghaff 4y ago

ponow 4y ago

This is so depressing.

kortex 4y ago

Would love to see a straw poll of what these lawmakers consider "tools not normally found in a residence". Oscilloscope? Not "normally" found in a residence (I would say <10% of households have one). Can be used to study engine timing (exactly what I'm doing at the moment to fix my ride-on). In my humble garage shop, I also have, lets see... OBD2 reader, specialty 12-point driver bits, a precision lab scale, a bunch of old Starrett metrology tools, oxymap torch, HHO gas generator, etc., are those normally found in a residence? These "I know it when I see it" kinds of laws are terrible.

thefz 4y ago

Land of the free*

bastardoperator 4y ago

Close the garage door?

giantg2 4y ago

"Repairing Your Car in Your Own Garage Is Considered Illegal in Sacramento, CA" Yep, and so are many basic home repairs in NYC. It seems these restrictions are more common in areas with higher populations and also as fewer people do their own work. Some of this may be in the name of safety, the environment, etc. However, the actual law tends to be overkill since they don't tailor it to specific actions causing the potential harms.

chasd00 4y ago
is there an auto repair union in Sacramento? that's where i'd first look to the source of the law.
NegativeLatency 4y ago
Out of curiosity what home repairs are illegal?

1letterunixname 4y ago

This would've prevented my grandfather from transitioning from the military to becoming a mechanic for 30 years, and from doing any of his own repairs at home. Whether someone creates an eyesore or hazmat site comes down to their character. Next, California will concoct a law stating soldering electronics is illegal because lead solder might be used. These are laws targeting blue-collar tradespeople suggesting they are beneath contempt.

diydsp 4y ago
Present American culture is at risk of losing the values of self-made people. An unsympathetic lawmaker might respond to your story by saying your grandfather should not have become a mechanic through that path, but by following the basic, mainstream path of going into debt for schooling, then going into debt to own a shop. The underlying perspective of certain people in power is to keep everyone indentured so they cannot disrupt the ruling class. This is a seachange since the founding of the country in which the intention was for as many people to be free as possible - slaves not withstanding!

candyman 4y ago

I visited LA this year and in fancy neighborhoods you still park on the street but you are not allowed to leave your car in the same spot for more than 72 hours or they ticket and tow. BUT if you are living in your vehicle the rule doesn’t apply. Gotta love those CA regulations!

SaintSeiya84 4y ago

you pay for my house? my car? my bills? no? then shut up, I do whatever I want with my property that I paid for. Is not your business what I do here, if you think that lowers 'your property value' that's your problem not mine, pay me then for not lowering yours, entitled kid, or do stuff on your own backyard to increase it. Seriously the amount of power we have given others over our private property is maddening. HOAs and ordinances should be limited to common areas only. Private property is private, period.

teh_klev 4y ago

Original article by Jalopnik that this one is a re-heat of: https://jalopnik.com/sacramento-county-says-its-illegal-to-work-on-your-own-1836085130 https://jalopnik.com/sacramento-county-says-its-illegal-to-w...

thefurdrake 4y ago

You can tell the law's premise (It's about people dumping chemicals! Think about the $HealthConcerns!vague, gasp) is a bunch of nonsense by how its actions (No maintaining cars) don't actually address those concerns directly. Hell, the premise CLAIMS that it's about dangerous chemicals, but still allows the most common interaction with dangerous chemicals a normal car owner will perform (an oil change), There has to be a term for this. It's super common, but I don't think "Disingenuous lie of a piece of legislation" rolls off the tongue as well as a proper term for a law which is defined/described to perform one function but is obviously meant to perform another. The premise is also completely unenforceable. Who's going to go into someone's garage and inspect the state of their vehicles to determine if they're in a state of (active or not) disrepair and being worked on, or if "Ted Across The Street Opened His Garage Door And It's Messy In There How Uncouth"?

cheriot 4y ago
Usually laws like this are anti-poor so I just call them that. Municipal governments have been turned into HOAs and the median American voter wants to live in an exclusive neighborhood. It's sad how badly these suburban utopia views distort society and the economy.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > Municipal governments have been turned into HOAs HOAs were just a hack around municipal governments being prohibited from engaging in certain acts (mostly, racial discrimination); municipal governments have always been like HOAs, otherwise.

r053bud 4y ago

Cool, this is where civil disobedience comes in and they can go through the hassle of enforcing this on me. Next thing they are going to make it illegal to work on my house myself.

mbg721 4y ago

It's interstate commerce for sure.

aposm 4y ago

There's an easy solution if the law is truly intended just to prevent unlicensed pop-up repair shops - just ban unauthorized _commercial_ repair. In fact, that's almost certainly already prohibited by regular residential zoning. It's obvious this law is written as broadly as possible with the intention of allowing selective enforcement.

blindstitch 4y ago

Since Shelly v. Kraemer in USA it's illegal to write zoning code that explicitly excludes poor/black people from an area. The main way it is enforced now is by writing code that prohibits anything but single family homes in an area or setting a minimum lot size to indirectly force prices upward. Residential zoning isn't all bad in theory but it is still an effective tool for creating housing areas that are segregated by class.

screamingninja 4y ago
> it's illegal to write zoning code that explicitly excludes poor/black people from an area. The main way it is enforced... I follow your reasoning about discrimination based on economic background but you lost me at "black people". Economic segregation is taking place, yes, but how is this racial discrimination in any sense?
- blindstitch 4y ago
  Black people make up a much smaller proportion of the upper income deciles so forcing prices upwards in an area makes it less diverse by default.

flenserboy 4y ago

It would not surprise me to see this sort of law popping up as a way of protecting particular businesses — home repairs, computer repairs, and the like could be made to fall under similarly vague regulations.

cjtrowbridge 4y ago

There are no laws that are actually fully enforced. The choice of when and where to enforce what rules falls to whoever is in charge of enforcement, and they use the rules only when it helps to enforce the unspoken and unwritten rules in society. The role of rule-enforcement in society is to punish whatever the individual agent perceives as deviance, not to enforce the law or to "serve and protect."

SNosTrAnDbLe 4y ago

Another unrelated thing that I discovered while buying my Audi in California is that I have to have to purchase the services from the same dealer as well.

ourmandave 4y ago

What if I fix my John Deere tractor in my drive way? And I use iPhone parts to do it?

_yb2s 4y ago

As a car enthusiast that mostly had to work on my cars outdoors in parking lots for most of my young adulthood, owning my own home with a garage was a huge milestone in my life. Make no mistake- I was excited about the garage, not the home- and without the garage I wouldn't have bought it! Shortly after buying this home, the HOA passed a new rule that strictly banned all car maintenance, even in my own garage, even if the garage door were closed. The other people in the community (elderly retired urban white collar workers) could not understand at all why this was such an issue for me, but I felt like my home had been stolen from me. They had blocked me from using my own home for the main reason I had purchased it. I was really stressed about this, and couldn't sleep for months I was so angry... and I eventually had to just sell the place and move. I find the attitude that doing real work with your own hands is "low class" disgusting. I grew up upper middle class in a family of scientists and engineers, where I learned a sense of pride in doing things myself, with my own hands... and that having to pay someone to, e.g. fix your own car for you is disgraceful. It's something a functional adult should be able to do for themselves. It infantilizes you and renders you helpless when you are, e.g. broken down in a remote place and can't just call for help. You can better thrive in a high tech world if you deeply understand your tools and machines, and fix and maintain them yourself. It also lets you build a connection with the machine that is rewarding. I feel I can trust my vehicles with my life, because I maintain them with care, and know them inside and out.

guerrilla 4y ago
> The other people in the community (elderly white collar workers) could not understand at all why this was such an issue for me, but I felt like my home had been stolen from me. They had blocked me from using my own home for the main reason I had purchased it. I was really stressed about this, and couldn't sleep for months I was so angry... and I eventually had to just sell the place and move. I'm really sorry, that sounds terrible. It sucks to be so powerless in the face of such injustice. I think you made the right decision though. There's only so much one can do in such a situation. It's best to accept one is beat and do what one can with what's left. A hard lesson of maturity but a better life in the long-run.
xirdstl 4y ago
I agree that the attitude that doing real work is "low class" is disgusting. I also think the attitude that paying someone to fix your car "is disgraceful" is disgusting.

wiskinator 4y ago

Anecdotally, there is a correlation between being poor and working on your own car. There is likely an aspect of this law that is rich HoA members not wanting to live near poorer families, or at the very least be able to control what they do. Remember also that in this country race / ethnicity still correlates strongly with financial stability. So this law is basically "I don't want my Latino neighbors working on their cars".

dsfyu404ed 4y ago
In their defense, they'd probably get a stick up their ass over white neighbors wrenching on cars too.

egberts1 4y ago

Blasted bugger, I must have saved over $9,000 repairing my 3 old cars with my drive-up ramps. Nothing like cherry-picking engines, dropping transmissions, and bleeding the lines. Such a shame, Sacramento. So glad I moved out sometime ago.

ravenstine 4y ago

The day they get me for repairing my own car is the day they fine or jail me for distilling alcohol, burning wood in my fire pit, smoking grass, paying people under the table, jaywalking, playing music a few decibels too loud, and all the other illegal shit I do. Laws matter only so much as they are enforced. Under the current legal system, everything might as well be illegal, therefore you might as well do all the illegal things anyway.

amriksohata 4y ago

Corporate America makes me chuckle, meanwhile in European countries they are pushing for the exact opposite, the right to repair for consumers: https://repair.eu/ https://repair.eu/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_repair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_repair

TrispusAttucks 4y ago

War against the self reliant.