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USC Broadcast Journalism student Matt Schrader has spent the last three months investigating parking tickets issued for violating street sweeping hours. He finds that tickets are often given on days when sweepers never come by. No surprise there.
To boot, he gets officials on the record agreeing with him: tickets shouldn't be issued if the city has no reason to.
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Wow. Great report! It's even worse if this kind of thing is more prevalent in lower-income communities (which I'd imagine there's a good chance that it is).
Seems like the fault lies with the sanitation district, not parking enforcement.
As someone who's lived in communities with alternate day street sweeping and no off-street parking, the city's practice in this area simply amounts to a tax on the poor.
ITA!!
This is one BIG reason I don't own a car. The city makes it expensive, especially for poor people.
Agree with posters (and 'victim' in piece) that you cannot expect not to get a ticket because the sweeper did not make it to that block. I've been ticketed for parking AFTER the sweeper passed through, an even more compelling case, but even then, I knew I could not win.
+1 on the comments by rdm24 and Population.
The fact that the sweeper doesn't go by does not make it OK to park there. It just means the sanitation department isn't doing its job thoroughly, like rdm24 stated.
The signs clearly state the days and hours on which you cannot park in those areas and why. It does not include a disclaimer or conditions.
They don't state "you will only be ticketed if the sweeper comes by" nor do they state "you can't park here IF the sweeper comes by."
If people don't want to respect the law, they should be prepared to pay the consequences.
The argument is that how can you penalize someone for blocking street sweeping when street sweeping isn't performed?
The signs specifically state no parking for STREET SWEEPING. If you're not going to sweep, you can't ticket. This follows your logic - it states why you can't park there during those times. That means the penalties apply when you're blocking that activity.
Yes, but it doesn't state "you are allowed to park here if they don't sweep." I agree that were we to follow that logic, that would be the reasonable conclusion, but that doesn't mean that is what the law states.
Laws aren't based on assumptions, they are based on what is actually written, and nowhere does it state that one is excused from being fined if the street is not swept nor does it actually say that one is only subject to fines for impeding street sweeping. The latter is implied, but not stated.
I could easily argue how can one penalize someone for DUI if they weren't pulled over? Well, they can be and they should be. I've called 911 before to report drunk drivers before. If the cops don't catch them on the street, I sure as hell expect them to go knock on their doors and grab them there and I'd happily testify against them.
Point being, the fact some other condition didn't exist doesn't make it OK. They are still breaking the law.
While street sweeping may be the reason stated on the sign, and the main reason parking is closed for two hours, it is not the only reason that street parking is disallowed for a period each week. Cities also have an interest in ensuring that cars parked on public property are actually being used. Besides finding numbers of stolen and abandoned cars due to parking restrictions, they also ensure that citizens do not simply use the streets as their own permanent resting place for otherwise unused vehicles.
This reminded me to pay my parking ticket!
$134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00 $134,000,000.00
Sweet Jezuz.
Our streets need cleaning because many citizens in this city throw trash on the ground without repercussion. Just yesterday I watched a woman accross the street from my house throw a plastic bag, a plastic milk container and several bottle caps right onto the street.
I have no problem with issuing tickets for infringements. All fines against citizens for these specific parking infringements that impede the city from cleaning our streets should be used to make Los Angeles a clean city.
1. More garbage cans.
2. Enforcement of littering policy and fines.
2. More street signs warning against littering.
4. More street sweepers.
My Wife is from NYC and was shocked when she moved here because the lack of Trashcans on the street.
If you want to see the worst case. Go over to the corner of Sunset and Highland on the NE side RIGHT in front of Hollywood High. Can you believe there are no trash cans around a high school and directly across from In and Out? Here in LA it seems sanitation is something our officials don't really care too much about.
Thank goodness we reelected Villaraigosa and 99% of city hall's incumbents back in March.
They'll insure that this doesn't get swept under the rug.
Just ask Jamiel Shaw's Family.
Holy shit TUA!
I first became aware of this cash cow parking tickets situation, street sweeping days, red zones, yellow zones, green zones, multiple parking restriction signs, (so you have to walk the entire block reading parking signs to make sure you're not in violation of something), back when I first moved here in the early 80's.
I know you hate the man, but how is this one Villaraigosa's fault?
It's been this way ever since the city figured out how much money they could make screwing everyone over who owns a car, (which is pretty much everyone).
Potholes, yo. Its getting rediculous.
Yeah this is so not an issue from the stand point of the traffic enforcement handing out tickets. They are doing their job, giving tickets to cars that are parked in areas when they shouldn't be. If Mr. Schrader really wants to focus on the real issue then he should work on finding out why the city is not cleaning when it says it should be and why city officals arn't on the same page when it comes to this issue.
Nice try but investigating the wrong issue.
are the street sweepers city employees or is the work contracted out? Anyone know?