• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Photo

Police said they will ticket cars parked over the sidewalk in North Village, such as these on Lan

For years, rows of cars stacked end to end in driveways and partially blocking sidewalks have been a common sight in the Westwood Village apartments.

But Los Angeles police announced that possibly as early as November, they will begin ticketing for “apron parking” – the term used for cars parked illegally in driveways so they protrude onto the sidewalks – in response to complaints from North Village residents.

“There’s a lot of stacked parking on Landfair, Levering and Strathmore,” said Kevin Eagen, a first-year doctoral student in higher education and administration who lives in Weyburn Terrace. “Part of the problem are the frat houses – it’s fairly common to see the same cars parked on the sidewalk and spilling onto the street.”

Faced with the threat of penalization, some students are worried about the lack of alternative parking options in Westwood, which give North Village residents little choice but to park their cars bumper to bumper in driveways and on the sidewalks.

“I think (the Los Angeles police) should not enforce (the apron parking laws), since there’s not enough parking in Westwood,” said Alex Mohr, a third-year civil engineering student who lives on Midvale Avenue and has a car in Westwood. Mohr said he currently pays $100 a month to park in a structure beneath his apartment.

Mohr said it would be ideal if the city could build a new parking structure, but recognized that doing so might not be practical since housing is so expensive in Los Angeles.

Eagen, who purchases a parking spot in the Weyburn Terrace parking structure for about $800 per year, said finding alternate parking spots for many North Village residents could be a significant problem.

“It is a nuisance for pedestrians (to weave around the cars), but on the flip side if that were my only parking option I would pose the question, ‘Where else can I park?’” Eagen said.

Because parking is so scarce, some North Village landlords charge their tenants a fee to park illegally in the driveways and on the streets.

“This is a big issue, because some students are even being charged by their landlords for the right to park in the driveways and on the sidewalks – and that’s illegal,” said PC Zai, facilities commissioner for the Undergraduate Students Association Council.

Though the city of Los Angeles has largely ignored apron-parking violations for the past 30 years, city officials recently decided to reinstate enforcement of these parking laws due to a large number of complaints from the neighborhood residents.

Two years ago, Los Angeles police began heavily ticketing parking violations in the North Village, also in response to a number of complaints. Many students reacted with outrage, arguing that there are few other parking options in Westwood.

“Students were quite upset about the whole action, so the city decided to back off the issue and accommodate the students’ needs,” said Felicia Brannon, executive director of UCLA Government and Community Relations.

Along with Student Affairs and Transportation Services, Government Relations is working with the city to figure out alternative parking options for students and ways to alleviate the negative effects of the upcoming enforcement, Brannon said.

“UCLA is nearing its parking capacity – the university can’t build much more than 1,000 new parking spaces. So it’s a scarce resource question,” Zai said.

Because of the limited amount of space, the UCLA administration has been able to do little more than delay police enforcement until winter quarter to allow students the opportunity to leave their cars at home and find alternative public transportation methods.

“We’re in the process of coordinating an effort on campus to get this information out to students, so that they know when the police will start ticketing,” Brannon said.

UCLA administrative factions will be meeting throughout the quarter to address parking policies and issues and look for alternative solutions.

Despite the concerns for alternative parking options, some students believe that stricter enforcement may bring about a positive result.

Jennifer Lee, a fourth-year English student who lives at the corner of Tiverton and Le Conte avenues and does not have a car in the area, said the stricter enforcement might help clear up the inconvenient congestion near the apartments.

“As long as (the enforcement’s) consistent, I don’t think it’s bad if it’s harsh. It would definitely minimize an inconvenience for students – if you’re the first car and you’re late to a meeting, you might not be able to get out of the jam,” Lee said. “If the enforcement is going to be stricter, most students will figure out parking solutions for themselves.”