To the editor:
    
In response to Denise Dunbars July 21 column on Alexandrias ordinances addressing abandoned vehicles (Only in Alexandria: a tale of cars and cats), I sympathize with her but feel the ordinance is just.  
    
Street parking in Alexandria, particularly in Old Town, is scarce. To have one car occupy the same piece of real estate for a long period of time makes it difficult for other tax-paying residents to find a parking space proximate to their home. While I admit I have called parking enforcement on several vehicles during my residency in Old Town Alexandria, I have never called to report a car of an immediate neighbor. Typically, I have called on people and gleefully observed the cars being towed who brazenly use my street as a satellite parking lot for the Metro.  
    
Without a residential parking zone, my neighborhood and others are unprotected from nonresidents using the streets as a long-term parking lot. Clearly, while the city should not be towing cars abandoned in front of the homes of registered owners, there should be ordinances to ensure street parking is generally reserved for the tax-paying residents of the neighborhood.  
    
I dont know if the solution is universal residential parking zones, but in lieu of that option, Ms. Dunbar and everybody else should get out and meet their neighbors.