Frustrating isn’t it? I have no idea what to do. We bitch about the parking patrol nazi’s often enough for what looks to be punitive enforcement on their part. Then you get to the flagarant abusers and nothing happens.

Even when you complaing and provide docs it takes years to clean it up. Even then they move over a street or two so it isn’t really solved.

Keep us posted if you get results. I fear that it will be looked at as low on the priority totem pole to get any action.

They didn’t say two hours in a row… LOL

Thus far, the results have not been too promising. Recently, in the parking lot of the shopping center that is not 200 feet from the RV Outlaw, I saw a Parking Enforcement officer in his car and flagged him down. I asked him if he had jurisdiction over the spots on Washington. He said yes. I pointed out the RVs and asked him if he knew that they were flagrantly violating the 2-hour limit day in and day out. He had no clue about the 2-hour limit posted on the sign that we could both see, but he said he would check it out. I have yet to see any tickets on any of the vehicles, and, in 18 months, I have only once seen a police officer parked among these vehicles (and for all know, he was doing paperwork, eating donuts, or doing something other than ticketing the RVs).

This is the perfect situation to call your city councilperson’s field office. You’d be surprised at how quickly parking enforcement responds when they get a call from them!

I had a problem on my street with auto body shops storing cars longterm. cars being stored longterm. One call to Eric Garcetti’s field office, and the next week the cars were ticketed. Continued enforcement has kept the wrecks off of the street.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but…creating new restricted parking zones will have little to no impact on the Mobile Homeless© and their RVs because it does not address the root cause of the problem: 95% of them are displaying handicapped placards, and that makes them exempt from parking restrictions (see below). I’ve never heard this addressed before but with the growing uproar across the city I wondered if anyone else has considered this dilemma.

I live in Santa Monica near the beach and the Venice border where there is no shortage of Mobile Homeless© (many of them neighborhood regulars) and on any given day each and every one can have a placard displayed. Now, the California Vehicle Code is very specific about who qualifies for a placard and it’s basically limited to:

• people with missing limbs or the need for an assistance device;
• the legally blind;
• people with class III or VI cardiovascular disease;
• those with breathing problems so severe they would know if their “arterial oxygen tension measures less than 60 mm/Hg.”

Call me cynical, but my mom — who is 80 and uses a cane — is only issued a red temporary placard by Kaiser, which she has to renew every six months because she might get better; I suspect many of the Mobile Homeless© in my neighborhood don’t fit in the narrowly-defined categories I listed. Legitimate or not, as long as so many RVs have those placards, no amount of signs and parking restrictions can make them move.

My short-term idea: Form an ad-hoc SMPD/LAPD task force that would spend a few weeks strictly enforcing parking restrictions. When they run the plates of a violator they can also run the placard numbers; If the placards are not legit they get confiscated, making those RVs fair game for tickets or towing. I’m positive this would reduce the number of RVs residents have to deal with, and since the focus is on placard-fraud you totally avoid the whole us-against-them mindset that has fueled the parking-problem clusterfuck of the last 5-10 years.

Matt, I’ll bet you an In-N-Out burger that the RV above also has a handicapped placard :)

BTW, I happen to be on SSDI Disability myself so I do have compassion for anyone with serious health concerns; I also know that you absolutely can not judge a person’s medical condition just by looking at them. Over time, however, it became clear that all those placards were no longer about creating accessibility but had become a license to flaunt the rules. (And no, I personally do not have a placard. :D )

California Vehicle Code: Disabled Parking-Authorized Parking Zones
22511.5. (a) (1) A disabled person or disabled veteran displaying special license plates issued under Section 5007 or a distinguishing placard issued under Section 22511.55 or 22511.59 is allowed to park for unlimited periods in any of the following zones:

(A) In any restricted zone described in paragraph (5) of subdivision (a) of Section 21458 or on streets upon which preferential parking privileges and height limits have been given pursuant to Section 22507.

(B) In any parking zone that is restricted as to the length of time parking is permitted as indicated by a sign erected pursuant to a local ordinance.

(2) A disabled person or disabled veteran is allowed to park in any metered parking space without being required to pay parking meter fees.