I'm glad I'm done with UCLA, because it's the eye of the sucky storm that's engulfing California. There's never been nearly enough parking at the campus -- not least because they keep tearing down student lots to build new offices for the professors -- but now Michael Dukakis is working his butt off to make the Westwood parking crunch worse than it already is.
The former Massachusetts governor has been at the center of a more than two-year battle against the longtime practice of "apron parking" in the neighborhood west of UCLA known as North Village. There, parked cars spill out of apartment driveways and straddle sidewalks and streets."It's a disaster," said Dukakis, who teaches public policy at UCLA and lives part-time in the neighborhood. "Beyond being illegal, it's dangerous. You get two SUVs with their rear ends sticking out into the street, and you end up with a one-way road. It's time to end it."
It's true that vehicles that hang out and block the street should be towed, but from my experience living near UCLA for four years they usually were. Blocking the streets has never been allowed, but the city has been lenient with cars who block the sidewalks because there just isn't anywhere else to stick a car.
Los Angeles city officials are now listening to Dukakis and the other critics of apron parking. As soon as January, parking enforcement officers will begin aggressively ticketing cars that partly block streets and sidewalks.The campaign is expected to leave many residents scrambling for parking. There are only 857 legal curb spaces in North Village, but about 5,700 vehicles belonging to residents. The demand gets far worse when students commuting to UCLA comb the streets for parking spots.
Even finding an illegal spot in Westwood is a nightmare, but now it's going to get worse. Thanks Dukakis. Every time some failed leftist presidential candidate does something stupid I'm reminded of how disasterous their victory would have been for our country.
(HT: The Pirate.)
Hi Michael..did you read the part about it being an ADA violation? The City of Sacramento was hit by an ADA lawsuit for inadequately enforcing sidewalk parking a few years ago and was forced to ratchet up its enforcement as well. I don't think that its acceptable for pedestrians (especially children and the disabled) to be forced to walk on the street because someone has parked their car on the sidewalk.
Manish: Usually people leave enough room to get by, but yeah, not always. I guess the fact of the matter is that if there's not enough room for everyone, someone has to lose. I just don't see why it should automatically be pedestrians that win. Eliminating apron parking hurts the people who live in the buildings the most, because they won't have anywhere to park, and they're there all the time. I think they should get priority.
If that means that there's no room for pedestrians, so be it, I guess they should choose not to visit Westwood. There's lots of places I don't go to because of various inconveniences. That's life.
It was the threat of an ADA lawsuit. Rather than work a solution where both sides can win, its the ADA threat. From my trips to Westwood, I find that 90+% of parkers leave ample space to allow sidewalk acess. Solve the 10% problem and don't screw everyone. Beyond that in the Southland, the ADA has been used by lawyers as a means to shakedown corporations and small businesses for things like the the toliet being 16.5 inches from the wall instead of 17 inches.
Where I used to work they had to fight the ADA. When the pier was rotted and need replacement it has to mee ADA standards, which meant to meet the requirement the ramp from the pier to the dock would of need to be 120 ft long, where was no where near feaseable in the situation.
To Michael:
Would you happen to know if Los Anglese actually has a law in place against apron parking? Or is it just frown upon? Or something like if your car sticks out more than 50% into the side walk...and etc??? I am just throwing out suggestions here. If you know more about the laws against or about Aprong parking in LA, please do let me know...thanks very much!!!
Book: I don't know the details of the law. I don't think you're allowed to park on or overhang sidewalks at all.