<p>after reading that you can just walk by people at your favorite department store who ask to see your receipt as you leave the store (which makes so much sense its a wonder ive never questioned this) ive become interested in why things the way they are</p>
<p>well at my highschool you can get a parking ticket for not showing a parking permit. this makes perfect sense since the limited parking spaces are reserved for seniors and i think it is needed to keep things working.</p>
<p>but im kind of curious as to how they can ticket you for parking on public property?</p>
<p>Streets are public property - but can be subject to things like parking meters. Public property, and someone can correct or clarify, does not mean that citizens can use it anyway they each so choose. Think of the chaos that would lead to. Contrast the notion of "public property" with "private property" - that owned by individuals or corporations, who are still restricted in their use of it (such as not building on wetlands, not building a nuclear reactor and letting slime pollute it, or not running a brothel in a residential district). So public property is just that not owned by a specific individual or entity, but rather by "everyone," and there are restrictions placed upon it that, theoretically, everyone agrees to - such are enacted through representative gov't.</p>
<p>Anyone? I haven't hit public property in my Property class yet.</p>
<p>Oh yes - to actually answer the question, your duly elected representatives speak for the people, the owners of the property, and gov't, which has the right to put restrictions on property, to restrict something like parking to designated locations (not in the middle of the street or on a grassy lawn), by designated people (handicapped spots are a good example), and designated times (things like free parking on Sundays or no parking on every other Wednesday for street cleaning). So, if you violate those restrictions, you get a fine that the people (owners of the property), through your duly elected representatives, chose to levy on those violators.</p>