Editor’s Note: This article corrects a previous article, which misstated John Haberstroh and Jonathon Bolin’s parking permit plan.
If you have a car in Long Beach, there’s a good chance you’ve been the victim of parking tickets. Parking tickets are one of the most frustrating violations to get, and usually set the tone for a miserable day.
That is why it was no surprise that an audit last week found that the city of Long Beach had over $18 million in unpaid parking tickets. People just aren’t paying for their parking violations anymore.
According to a Press Telegram article, City Auditor Laura Doud said outdated software could be blamed for the lack of collecting the parking fines over the past three years.
Between 2003 and 2007, the city had $11.7 million in unpaid parking fees from repeat offenders with five or more tickets.
Due to a state law that limits towing a vehicle until five years after the offense, the city has a hard time enforcing the fines.
Besides not having to pay off tickets until five years without consequences, many people do not pay their tickets because they feel they are sticking it to the man by not paying their fines.
With parking so scarce as it is, there is nothing more frustrating than walking out to your car to find a ticket for forgetting to move your car the night before. These are the kind of offenders that let these tickets pile up.
At Cal State Long Beach, our campus has a similar problem in collecting fines. Parking on campus is limited as it is-that is a story within itself-but cash-strapped students find it difficult to pay off these fines themselves.
Around $50 is what a student would pay in fines if they park without a permit on campus. To avoid fines students must invest in an expensive semester pass or bite the bullet and pay $5 every time they visit campus. This is just more money to stack on top of semester student fees.
However, ASI presidential candidate John Haberstroh and vice president running mate Jonathon Bolin have an idea.
The running mates made a proposal at last month’s ASI debates.
The Johns suggested that if a student gets a ticket for not having a parking pass, they could purchase a semester parking pass to cancel out the ticket. The Johns said they believe this policy would encourage more students to buy semester parking passes.
This does seem like a favorable idea. In Monopoly terms it almost acts like a get out of jail free card. However, it does neglect to account for those students who would abuse the policy by parking without permits and hoping that a parking attendant would miss their car.
Both the city of Long Beach and CSULB are doing a great job at handing out parking tickets, but doing a terrible job at collecting them. Hopefully there is a solution out there to both problems because there are millions of uses for the millions of dollars in unpaid fines.
I bought a parking ticket to see the dog show on a Sunday and placed it on my dash. Either the parking dictator had poor sight or because of the State cutting back the level of lighting, it was too dark for this person to either see the ticket stub or whatever the reason, I got a parking ticket.
Despite sending in the parking stub and explaining twice that I paid to park, they said “the evidence was insufficient” and there was no way to reverse their mistake without first paying a $48 fine. Right, and I have a bridge for sale…
What kind of “hanging judge” court system is this? I guess I’ll just wait until it catches up with registration or? and then take the time to appear in a real court of law and re-explain.
What a poor example of “I’m right and everybody else is wrong-gimme your dough and the hell with you”.
I got a ticket even though I had a parking permit for the whole semester! When I appealed I got the same answer ‘the evidence was insufficient’. I mean what evidence? I already paid for that ridiculous amount for the permit more than a MONTH ago. But you know what do NOT pay that ticket late. Believe me. Now I have to pay $90!! (for just 2 days delay)
The CSULB parking officer really sucks! I have the legitimate reasons to dismiss the ticket. I was also the first time to park in the lot and there was a parking ticket booth mal-function although I paid for the full parking. I explained situations but to no use. They were just not listening.
They are bunch of hungry crooks and scumbags!
Hmm…kind of bull that as of 2015, even if you have bought a permit and forget to put your temporary up for one day (even though you have for previous days), you get a ticket that you cant contest (despite having proof that you had already bought a permit). I wish the worst on Parking Services at CSULB. Especially the man who denies your claim in person, even though you have perfect proof that you don’t deserve at all to get a ticket.
So I have to spend a pretty penny on a semester pass and park clear across the other side of campus and then walk across campus to get to my classes because there are never any spots in the lots near my classes..Or I park off campus and have to walk even farther and deal with finding a spot. It’s a complete rip off and it is complete BS! 125$ should be for the year . This school is sucking me dry. Unfortunately I don’t have parents paying my way through college like most. –
4th year senior
Film Production Program
I think a fairer system for fines needs to be put in place. Paying $48 for going over your allocated time by 5minutes for example is unreasonable. I think the fines should be designed to match the severity of the offense. For example a lesser fine of $10 for the first hour, $20 for the second hour and then the maximum fine. This is in reference to metered parking. There is no excuse for not purchasing a parking permit.