Council’s Parking Penalty Cut Will Hurt City Revenue

I would like to thank Times staff writer Irene Chang for her peerless coverage of Councilwoman Marie Purvis’ wisecrack about Chinese drivers (Times, March 14). Naturally the story made the front page, proving once again that racism sells papers.

Another story which received little attention but will affect everyone in Monterey Park is the lowering of the $20 fine for illegal parking on street-sweeping days. The new penalty would be $13, causing a reduction of $100,800 in revenue for our city each year.

Councilman Sam Kiang pushed this action because he had to pay the fine three times. Apparently he didn’t move his car promptly on street-sweeping days and got ticketed.

The law applies equally to everyone and a responsible citizen obeys the law. If one breaks the law, he should be prepared to face the consequences. The no-parking signs are very specific and the law was enacted to benefit the community. I would’ve been much happier if Councilman Kiang would act responsibly as most of us do instead of leading the charge in creating a $100,800 revenue shortfall.

I suppose that if Mayor Betty Couch was the leading proponent for reducing the $20 parking fine, she would be racist because she would be depriving certain citizens (read newcomers, mostly Asians) of their God-given right to receive city services. Such objective reporting would’ve put Monterey Park on the front page twice.

IRV GILMAN

Monterey Park