Put-upon (illegal) parkers across Los Angeles, your relief may be on the horizon: the Los Angeles Parking Freedom Initiative, tireless crusaders for the parking-ticket-receiving public, has solidified a plan of action to reform the citation status quo and they'll be presenting it to the mayor, the LA Times reports (they have their own City Hall working group, in fact). Their biggest idea is to cap parking tickets for non-public-safety-related offenses (e.g. parking at an expired meter) at $23 to reflect the median hourly wage (for all people, not just drivers or car-owners, who most likely have higher incomes); tickets today usually run $61. They also want to create opportunities for communities to set and alter parking restrictions and ticket fees, and redirect the money from parking citations out of the general budget and into a new Special Parking Revenue Fund that would go back into projects like sidewalk repairs, bike parking, carsharing, and improved parking signage. Their ambitious plan will be presented to Mayor Garcetti this week at the first meeting of the group's very special City Hall working group; if officials don't approve it, the org is willing to put it on the ballot this coming March. The way LAFPI sees it, the city wouldn't be losing money from ticket revenue because the Special Parking Revenue Fund would be helping to create things like "strategically" built parking structures that would make money while promoting business by giving potential shoppers a convenient place to leave their cars. LAFPI also suggests that bonds be sold off to soften the blow of the immediate and likely drastic drop in profits when the ticket fines are decreased.
Will the squeaky wheel get the grease? The mayor has previously said that he doesn't exactly think parking fines are excessive, so the LAFPI has their work cut out for them.
· Grass-roots L.A. group pushes to cap many parking tickets at $23 [LAT]
· A Parking System Reform Plan for Los Angeles [LAFPI]
· LA Parking Tickets Too Expensive, Say Car Activists Who Have Never Gotten A Jaywalking Ticket [Curbed LA]
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