I am going to warn you now that today’s post could be a little up there in the length department.
Let me talk first about parking enforcement here in downtown Los Angeles. If these guys ran the city, LA would be the most well run machine in the nation. Parking enforcement officers zoom around in their low emission hybrid cars and hand out tickets like candy here in the core. They are everywhere from 9-5, you couldn’t escape them if you tried!
Do I think you should get a ticket if your meter runs out? Sure. Should you get a ticket, or a boot if you park along a rush hour route during the times you can’t be parked? Absolutely. However, I am not sure about some of the tactics I have witnessed in my short time here; officers standing around and waiting for a meter to hit zero so they can write a ticket, or officers lining up tow trucks minutes before 3 p.m. outside of Ralphs so they can ticket and tow everyone parked illegally when the clock strikes the top of the hour.
The first time we visited LA we found a single spot on Flower street near the building we wanted to check out, but the meter read FAILED. There was a parking enforcement officer on the other side of the street and H asked him what the deal was. He said we could park there if the meter was not working. So we did, and no big deal. Fast forward to late April on a Saturday afternoon when we drove to another part of downtown for lunch and once again found ourselves at a FAILED meter. Again, an officer was around so we asked and received a smart ass answer that a FAILED meter is a FAILED meter. Needing an answer and not a statement we asked if we could park there and were told yes.
Fast forward to yesterday when we took Carter to Pussy & Pooch for a bath. We get near the store and there is one open meter, so we pull in and park. Hop out to notice the meter reads ….. FAILED. Past experience says we can park there, or so I thought. We emerged 45 minutes later to find a $40 ticket on the car and the meter reading 0:00. Did the meter reset itself? Did parking enforcement reset the meter and then give us a ticket?
I was riled up from this point on because I don’t think we should have received the ticket. I came home and searched online but of course there is no information on the web about FAILED meters. I called the number on the ticket and Chamique answered after being on hold for ten minutes. I told her I received a ticket and had a question. She asked for the ticket number and then took my personal information, name and mailing address to be exact. She then told me I had 21 days to contest the ticket. Ummmm okay, how do I do that? I can write in or I can visit an office. I asked my new friend Chamique what the policy is regarding FAILED meters – and of course she said nothing so I asked again in another way, wanting to know whether or not you can park at a FAILED meter. He response was “You can take a chance, but you might receive a ticket.” I thanked Chamique and then tried to figure out her response – so is it a game parking at a FAILED meter? Hit or miss? This wasn’t what two different parking enforcement people told me.
So I walk uptown (don’t need another ticket) in 85 degree weather, get lost along the way and finally find the office I need. I show my ticket and I’m given a form to fill out with my name, address and a statement. How many lines do I get to make my statement? Three. Obviously not much of a statement on my part but I did the best I could with the three lines I was given. I’m told I will hear something within 14-21 days and left.
I know what they are going to say – pay the ticket. It’s going to be my word against some guy that thinks he is a cop but really only has a cool machine that spits out tickets on the spot.
But why can’t anyone give me an answer on what the FAILED meter policy is?
Oh yeah — on my walk from our house to the office I passed directly in front of 31 parking meters. How many of them were FAILED? 20. That’s 65% people – 65% of the meters I passed were not working. Were they all going to get tickets too?
Upon arriving home it got me to thinking, why does parking enforcement work so hard to hand out as many tickets as possible, to boot cars left and right and tow whatever they can? Revenue. Well obviously right, but I think they are making up for other departments. I don’t see a lot of development downtown in terms of new businesses moving in to set up shop, namely big box stores. The revenue from all the new housing developments? Sits in a big fund and goes nowhere while the city banks on the Grand Avenue project that will be completed in 10 years, hoping that will bring a park and a store downtown.
So it’s my contention that parking enforcement does the dirty work and keeps the city running one ticket, one boot and one tow at a time.
if you are going to park at a FAILED meter, you should call the number on the meter and report the failure. then if you get a ticket because it started working, they’ll have a record of having been notified that the meter was broken at the time you parked.
or at least that’s the way it was explained to me when i called about a FAILED meter once.
Jim,
That would have been great to know ahead of time! The advice we were given was simply that we could park there. I suppose that is something we could try the next time.
In the South Bay, you cannot park at FAILED (broken) meters- for a long time the surfers would go jam the meters at the public beach lots in Manhattan and Hermosa then park there all morning long. City had enough of the broken/jammed meters and made it an offense to park at one. I’m surprissed that that is not what is happening when 20 out of 31 meters in a row are FAILED downtown…
Now maybe you can find a use for those funny Canadian coins you may have around
Interesting …
I just read an article talking about the city replacing meters back in the mid-1990s and using all the same type of meter.
Why not move to the 20th centure and get the machines that let you pay with cash, credit card or coins and place the ticket on the dash board?
Either way, I am fired up about this for some reason
i believe that they are rolling out the new cash/credit/whatever machines in some areas.
and funny enough, i had to call about a FAIL meter today when we were grabbing lunch at cassell’s burgers. the operator tried to dissuade us from parking there, but said that the service call would be on file in case we got ticketed.
Wow, I wish I would have known that if I called everthing would have been alright. I guess we will see …
Be happy you’re not in Pasadena – where we call them the Parking Gestapo.
There are many failed meters downtown because of people who deliberately jam them and try to take the money from the people parking there. Sometimes they just spring back to life, I have seen that happen many times.
Watch for someone using a paper clip to rig the meter. It happens all over the place.
Pasadena and West Hollywood are known for the most restrictive parking regs and most unyeilding parking officers in the county. I hate to say it, but, count your blessings.
And I have been told many times that it is against the law to park at a FAILED meter. The meter should be fixed? Yeah, and I want a pony for Xmas. That’s life in the big city, kiddo.
If you park at a FAILED meter, you are spinning the roulette wheel. You may not get a ticket, but that’s just pure luck. They are allowed to give you a ticket for parking there. Obviously, they have discretion not to do so if they are feeling in a good mood, like, they just got laid last night or something.
Thanks for the comment Scott!
I didn’t know Pasadena and West Hollywood were just as bad, if not worse! Thanks for the heads up.
The funny thing about the failed meter is this: I had two parking officials tell me on the street, at different times, that it was okay to park there and when I went to file a complaint I couldn’t get anyone to give me a straight answer on the official policy.
Parking meter mishaps aside, but couldn’t you have walked to Pussy & Pooch, it is not that far from anywhere downtown.
We had visitors coming into town and thought it would be nice for Carter to be clean, at least for a day.
Downtown LA is incredibly dirty and it takes no time what so ever for our four legged friend to get a ‘film’ of dirt and dust on him, let alone his feet.
[...] 1 Parking Enforcement: 0 Remember a few weeks ago when I got a parking ticket? Here is the post in case you forgot but the short story is the meter said FAILED, I parked under the [...]