Deskripsyon

I’ve lived at 601 Valle Vista for 11 years. For the first 10 years, parking enforcement NEVER ticketed this area. And it made sense because there are no signs indicating that the area is not legal parking, nor is there a legitimate reason that it shouldn’t be legal parking. A year ago, right after the pandemic began, parking officers started AGGRESSIVELY targeting this area. I will try not to assume the worst, which would be that the city desperately needs revenue due to a massive budget shortfall, and parking tickets (which are regressive and hurt people the most who cannot afford to pay them). That trend of ticketing in this area has continued, with officers issuing tickets incessantly to every car they find here. My plumber, an immigrant with 3 kids, got 2 tickets here. He sheepishly told me about the tickets after getting the second one, and I offered to pay them, because I’m not ok with the city making it’s money off of hard working blue collar people’s backs.

Leaving aside the fact that there is no signage prohibiting parking in this area (so they’re essentially “gotcha’ing” drivers that don’t know better), the bigger problem is that our neighborhood’s parking is significantly impacted by our proximity to Grand Ave. A significant number of workers from Grand Ave who don’t have parking available to them near their offices park in our street (for a variety of reasons - but the primary reason is that there are no restrictions/meters). With shops opening again, we will now bear the burden of restaurant and movie go’ers who will park here as well (they did before the pandemic). We are happy to have those people in our ‘hood - the more the merrier! - but taking away 5-6 parking spots from us is insanity.

SO PLEASE, PRETTY PLEASE HELP OUR NEIGHBORHOOD. WE LIVE IN A PARKING-IMPACTED NEIGHBORHOOD NEAR A BUSY COMMERCIAL DISTRICT, AND THE CITY’S DECISION TO ARBITRARILY TICKET CARS IN THIS AREA IS COMPOUNDING THE ISSUE. THIS IS HAVING A DIRECT AND DAILY IMPACT ON EVERYONE WHO LIVES IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD, AND IT IS EASY TO FIX. WE DON’T NEED A BINDING RESOLUTION FROM THE CITY COUNCIL OR A PROCLAMATION FROM THE MAYOR, WHAT WE NEED IS FOR THE DEP’T OF PARKING AND TRAFFIC TO TELL THEIR OFFICERS TO STOP TICKETING HERE. THAT’S IT! PROBLEM SOLVED.