Commercial vehicles are eligible for a parking permit too.

The basic problem is that with the cost of a parking permit at $8 a month -- or zero, where there's no permit required -- the main cost of parking on the street is in terms of time and hassle, while the cost of off-street parking is two or three hundred dollars. This makes on-street parking well-suited for long-term parking, since you only have to deal with the hassle once a week (or at most once every 72 hours), while garages are much more valuable to someone who has to use their vehicle every day, because the main value is in avoiding the hunt for parking.

Ultimately city policy is that they are allowed (even encouraged) to leave their van there, same as anyone else. I think it's a bad policy, and I would like to change it for the better, but as it stands I can't fault them for using what they're allowed to use. Plenty of people do it-- they just don't have their name written on the side.

In the meantime, all you can really do is call them in to the parking authority for overstaying the 72 hour limit. Or leave a nasty note.

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