Parking Violations

Everyone knows there's a large municipal force in Los Angeles devoted to writing parking tickets. Each officer averages about six citations an hour, and 80% of those who receive tickets pay their fines, averaging about $37. Gross collections ran to $125 million in 2001, and $93 million of that was net, going into the city's general fund. But there are aspects of the parking laws and their enforcement that remain obscure.

"You're not going to believe what happened last night," Jeff Galfer said as he opened the door to his Atwater Village apartment. "I got another ticket. " Galfer and I had been talking for weeks about his Kafkaesque battles with the Los Angeles Parking Violations Bureau. Galfer would contest what he thought was an unfair parking citation, and the bureau would tell him his fine was on hold while the appeal was under review. The next thing he knew, a letter would arrive saying he owed not only the original fine, but late fees and penalties.

It is a battle between convenience and aesthetics, between personal preference and neighborhood consensus, between the will of the majority and the private property claims of the minority. It is an issue as close to the heart of many Angelenos as, well, their front yards. Lawn parking. In neighborhoods as diverse as Venice, Sherman Oaks and San Pedro, many natives disdain garages and the street and park the family sedan in the front yard.

Despite aggressive parking enforcement, Los Angeles has gone easy on chronic scofflaws who rack up multiple unpaid parking tickets, with the city missing out on up to $15 million in revenue, a new audit has found. The audit focused on parking violators with five or more unpaid tickets. Such violators are supposed to have their vehicles impounded or immobilized by a boot lock placed on one of the wheels. But officials found that L.A. Department of Transportation parking enforcement officers did not take action against 73.5% of the chronic offenders they came across.

Violating city parking laws is about to become more expensive in Costa Mesa. The City Council on Monday approved increased fines for parking violations. The new fines go into effect in the middle of February. The Police Department said a study of parking fines in surrounding areas revealed it was a lot less expensive to break parking laws in Costa Mesa than in Irvine, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Santa Ana or Fountain Valley.

An aggressive enforcement policy of towing and ticketing to prevent parked cars from clogging busy streets during rush hours was announced Thursday by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley. The number of tow-aways citywide could eventually double, transportation officials warned. The program aimed at problem drivers who park illegally during peak traffic hours will begin Aug. 27, Bradley said.

The Burbank City Council increased fines for most parking violations by nearly 50% but delayed an increase for tickets on the two-hour parking limit out of concern for downtown theater and restaurant goers. On a motion by Vice Mayor Bill Wiggins on Tuesday night, the council adopted a new parking fee schedule, increasing fines from $17 to $25 for violations of yellow zones, white zones, green zones, no parking zones and preferential parking.

Parking officers in Los Angeles will no longer write up violations of most posted signs on Christmas and other holidays, it was announced Friday. No parking will be allowed at red curbs, in bus zones or where stopping and parking are banned around the clock. But most other minor violations will be ignored under a new policy of the Department of Transportation. For instance, parking beyond time limits or in neighborhoods where permits are required will not be a violation on holidays.

Parking violations in Newport Beach will increase $3 for municipal violations and $5 for offenses involving handicapped spaces to cover the rising county surcharges. State legislation this year increased county fees by $5 for two funds that cover jail facilities. The fees are passed on to the city by the county for each violation. The city approved the new rates this week to cover those charges.

Hal Halter, affectionately known in the beach cities as the affable Santa Claus of Hermosa Beach, has died of a heart attack after a long illness. Halter, 69, a retired attorney, was Hermosa Beach's first administrative hearing officer for parking citations. City officials estimate that the San Pedro resident heard several thousand appeals during his four years with the city. Because of illness, Halter relinquished his duties in September.

It's a situation that thousands of Angelenos have faced. You're running late. The street is jammed with cars. There's just one spot left, but as you pull in the meter flashes that irritating message: Fail, Fail, Fail. Should you risk a ticket? Turns out in L.A. you're in the clear -- the city's meter enforcers aren't supposed to write tickets for parking at a failed meter. But that wasn't what Councilman Tom LaBonge, who represents portions of Los Feliz, Silver Lake and Hollywood, was hearing.

The budget crisis facing state and local governments is becoming particularly costly to California motorists, as officials turn to parking and traffic violations as a way to boost their depleted coffers. The ticket for an expired meter in Los Angeles jumped from $40 in 2008 to about $50 last year, and "fix-it" tickets for minor moving violations such as broken taillights more than doubled. And officials are now hatching new ideas to bring in even more money from naughty motorists.

Beverly Hills might seem a world away from urban ills like homelessness, but it could become the first city in Los Angeles County to dismiss parking citations for homeless people. The Beverly Hills City Council voted Tuesday to approve the creation of a "parking ticket forgiveness program" for homeless or formerly homeless individuals or people who are at risk of becoming homeless. The 5-0 vote came on a first reading; the council must approve the measure on a second reading for it to take effect.

They haunt the parking garages here. Eager students lurk on the outer edges of lots, hoping to sneak into an overlooked space and then race to class. Others linger near the elevators, picking out likely candidates and inching behind them as they head to their cars, waiting to swoop when the space is vacated. A few try a more advanced plan of attack: striking deals with friends, trading detailed schedules and swapping spots at just the right moment. Cal State Fullerton is the quintessential Southern California commuter campus.

A plan to restrict overnight parking won the strong support of Venice residents in a nonbinding election over the weekend. The plan still needs approval from the California Coastal Commission, which is expected to take it up in June.

Tickets for parking violations in the city of Los Angeles will cost $5 more starting next month, after a vote taken Tuesday by the City Council. Under the new fee schedule, motorists will have to pay $40 for parking in a loading zone, $45 for parking more than 18 inches from the curb, $55 for parking on street-sweeping day and $75 for parking in a red zone. Tickets automatically double when they are paid late. Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who heads the council's Transportation Committee, described the costlier parking tickets as critical to the city's effort to balance the budget.

A judge in Chile has ordered a Catholic priest to recite seven psalms daily for three months as punishment for illegal parking. Judge Manuel Perez said he issued the unusual sentence after the Rev. Jose Cornejo said he could not afford the $100 fine that would have been the regular sanction for illegal parking in the southern city of Puerto Montt. The priest said he had parked his car in front of a school where he works because he lacked the money to pay for public parking.

Two years after Los Angeles banned parking on hundreds of narrow hillside streets during red flag wind warnings, officials are still struggling to get residents to clear a path for firetrucks. In densely populated canyon roads, there are simply more cars than available parking spaces -- and that has caused some residents to ignore the parking restrictions.