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| BowJour.com/YouTube |
It's called the parking ticket. Opponents of the tax scheme say L.A. generates $300 million a year in parking revenue, $150 million of that from tickets.
A new revolt called the Los Angeles Parking Freedom Initiative cropped up late this year and promises to shake up City Hall in 2014 over the issue:
As parking fines have jumped to $61 in six years and the city's take has increased as a result of expanding hours when meters are in effect, local activists Steven Vincent and Jay Beeber are saying enough.
They're gearing up to force changes in the city's ticketing policy in 2014, including a possible voter initiative that could bypass the City Council's will.
Beeber, who helped put the nails in the coffin of the city's red-light camera scam, says the Los Angeles Parking Freedom Initiative is about putting the streets back under the control of the people.
After all, how many of you would vote for such onerous parking regulations and ticketing?
Beeber told us:
We're looking to reform the philosophy on the way parking is handled in the city of Los Angeles. Right now it's looked at as a profit center. How high can we make parking meter rates, how many hours can we run them for, how much can we increase the fines?
When the city had a budget crises a couple years ago the City Council went to the L.A. Department of Transportation and said, 'How can we maximize revenue here.' Rather than look at it from a standpoint of how much money you can extract from citizens, we should look at it as a service to the citizens of Los Angeles. That would help facilitate parking at businesses and neighborhoods without driving people away from the city and the businesses.
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