Parking meter gripes

Re “Parking rates may increase,” June 17

It is disingenuous to pretend that an increase in parking meter rates will get people out of their cars. Los Angeles is doing this for money.

Perhaps it has helped other cities balance their budgets, but unlike other cities, Los Angeles is filled with permit-parking areas. How many more neighborhoods will request these districts when cars flood their streets to avoid paying high meter costs? What are the health costs associated with the pollution created from more cars circling our neighborhoods looking for parking spots?

How much might the city lose when people get a restaurant valet to park their car for $5 rather than pay $4 an hour into a meter -- and still have to worry that they may go over a few nanoseconds and get ticketed?

Along with the recent series of hikes for trash pickup, this will be a tax way beyond what is reasonable or justifiable. As the song says, “If you drive a car I’ll tax the street ... If you take a walk I’ll tax your feet.”

Francine Oschin

Encino

I doubt that members of the City Council often have to encounter a problem most drivers deal with every day in Los Angeles -- finding a parking meter that actually works.

I drove into Los Angeles the other day for a medical appointment. I found a convenient spot and deposited the first 25 cents into the meter, only to find out that the meter was not working. So I had to get back in my car and search for another parking space, repeating the process three times before I found a meter that worked.

Heaven help you if you park in a spot with a broken meter. And has anyone ever tried to call the telephone number posted on the meter to report a bad meter? Another complete waste of time and city resources. Nothing ever seems to get repaired.

My suggestion to the City Council to increase revenue from parking: Take some of the existing revenue from parking meters and repair the ones that don’t work!

Bill Cranham

La Quinta