North Village vehicles were showered with parking tickets for
illegally blocking sidewalks around this time last year, but
residents say these days violators have been given more leeway.
Last February and March, authorities cracked down on cars
blocking the sidewalks after a number of complaints. In Westwood,
an area well-known for its parking problems, residents frequently
must stack their cars end-to-end, blocking the sidewalks and
risking a $40 fine if they are ticketed. Fifty such tickets were
given out in just four days during 10th week of winter quarter
2004.
But residents say they have not noticed nearly as many tickets
this year as in the past.
“Pretty much cars block the sidewalk on all of
Landfair,” said Julian Sachs-Weintraub, a third-year
communication studies student living on Midvale Avenue. “I
haven’t seen any (tickets).”
Sgt. Shawn McCormick of Western Parking Enforcement ““ the
agency responsible for ticketing in Westwood ““ did not
comment on the reason that parking enforcement seems to have
declined since last year.”If there’s a violation, then
it’s not a problem for us to enforce it,” McCormick
said. “It doesn’t matter how many people call
in.”
Urban planning Professor Donald Shoup, who has spent the last 30
years researching parking and parking problems, said the parking
issues degrade the quality of life in the area, especially for the
disabled.
“There are still a lot of violations. When there are laws
on the book but they don’t enforce it, it becomes a
free-for-all,” he said. “Even if you’re not
disabled, it’s unpleasant to weave through parked cars on
your way to campus.”
Michael Dukakis, ex-governor of Massachusetts and a visting
public policy professor at UCLA, was behind many of the complaints
that led to last year’s slew of parking citations.
“It’s not the case this year because I haven’t
pressed it,” said Dukakis, who is also a Westwood resident,
of the drop in tickets compared to last year. “But I think
it’s absolutely outrageous what’s going on in the
neighborhood. If the city and the neighborhood don’t get
going on this thing, obviously they’re going to get
complaints. I’m not the only guy complaining.”
Shoup said Westwood’s notorious parking problems are
understandable, given the history of the neighborhood.
“A lot of (Westwood) was built at a time when people had
fewer cars, and there were fewer people per apartment,” Shoup
said.
He also said Westwood parking problems could be fixed with
relatively little effort, if Westwood implemented a permit system
like the ones used in other neighborhoods nearby.
“If they had permit parking and restricted the number of
permits to the number of curb spaces, they wouldn’t have to
park on the sidewalk,” Shoup said. “I think it’s
unusual that they don’t have a permit system. All you have to
do is walk over to the east side of campus, and the residents over
there have permit parking.”
Next quarter, Shoup is teaching a class on urban transportation
economics in which students will have the option to write a paper
exploring how to deal with parking issues like those in
Westwood.
“It’s very simple,” Dukakis said of
Shoup’s suggestion. “There have been a lot of
complaints about this, and when you have a solution that’s as
relatively simple as this, it seems to me you ought to proceed with
it.”
McCormick said that he was not aware of any long-term plans to
solve Westwood’s parking problems.