This is an issue that has been brewing for years (decades) at the Los Angeles University. Apartment residents in the “north Village” area west of the campus have been parking on the sidewalks (across the sidewalks), basically blocking them and causing havoc for pedestrians. Professor Donald Shoup has been leading the fight to get the police to ticket illegally parked vehicles.
I have been privy to numerous emails he has sent to the LA Department of Transportation and the City Council concerning the problem. He has approached the issue from the direction of the handicapped being unable to negotiate the sidewalks in the neighborhoods and the potential for a substantial lawsuit against the city. The tactic seems to have finally worked. Read about it here.
Of course the real issue is one of availability. There isn’t enough parking for the number of cars. So what to do? Simple, people who don’t have parking spaces must find them elsewhere. The campus has tens of thousands of spaces and I’m certain that 800 are available. Of course, the car owner may, horror of horrors, have to pay for a space. There are numerous lots in Westwood village that have spaces for rent. But once again, they might cost money.
According to the article, some students may just have to leave their cars at home and shudder, walk, take a bike, or use the bus.
The facts are that there are about 800 cars at any one time illegally parked in this neighborhood. The car owners and landlords had been placing pressure on politicos to keep ticketing from happening. In some cases, landlords were changing residents for parking on the sidewalk.
Its another classic case where charging for on street parking would solve the problem.
JVH
