The impact of free parking; white-collar ‘crime’; fighting bullies

Free parking’s cost

Re “He puts parking in its place,” Column One, Oct. 16

Good to see UCLA urban planning professor Donald Shoup’s work on the perils of free parking written about in a Column One.

If there is a single cause that there is “no there” in Los Angeles, it’s all those acres of free parking and neighborhoods paved over with roads to access it.

All that subsidized parking and driving undercuts the operation of a free market to find true low-cost alternatives, while it saps our neighborhoods of a sense of identity and locale.

Tom Politeo

San Pedro

It’s nice to see a transportation planner featured on the front page.

The lack of parking controls is just one factor that supports the state’s high car ownership rate causing sprawl, congestion and pollution. Unfortunately, parking charges do little to reduce vehicle usage for peak-period work trips. Most major city centers in the U.S. and Europe have high parking charges, and congestion continues to increase. More radical policies are required and are being tested in many cities. One involves charging drivers who enter downtowns in peak periods.

Clarke Rees

San Diego

Shoup’s rather unimpressive revelation is that higher parking fees increase revenues and decrease congestion.

Using the same logic, why not install fee-charging pedestrian turnstiles at every crosswalk, which would raise even more money while discouraging even more people from blighting urban areas with their presence?

James Dawson

Woodland Hills

Raising prices will only price out the less affluent; the affluent don’t mind higher prices and probably see personal benefit in clearing the less affluent out of their way.

I think Shoup should suggest the opposite: Raise taxes on the wealthy to seriously subsidize and improve transit so as to attract a lot more people to use it — even as that allows the less affluent to drive and park when they need without being gouged.

But that would be a progressive approach.

Kevin FitzMaurice

Los Angeles

Where is the alternative to driving? Where is the train or the bus? Cities such as New York are way ahead of the curve, and high parking prices there do work because people can get “there” by public transit. What we need here is a rail system in the median of each freeway; then we could get “there” by alternate modes.

Tammo Wilkens

Rancho Cucamonga

More companies staggering their work hours would go a long way toward reducing the heavy congestion in rush hours.

During the 1984 Olympics, for example, our 35-employee company temporarily changed its 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours of operation to 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. (half an hour for lunch). Most of the employees, who lived in the Valley, were very pleased as it cut their drive time significantly. After the Olympics, we kept the earlier hours. The long-term results, in addition to fewer cars on the road during the peak traffic times, were a dramatic reduction in absenteeism, as people could take care of personal issues before stores and offices closed.

Paul Selwyn

Santa Barbara

Price-based economic theories are great until you realize that they directly benefit the wealthy and punish the poor. And don’t we all understand by now that commuting and shopping via bicycle, walking and mass transit is not a viable option for everyone, especially here in L.A.?

Robert Dean

Lake Balboa

Our ‘two-tiered’ justice system

Re “Countrywide execs settle fraud charges,” Oct. 16, and “Karatz may avoid trip to prison,” Business, Oct. 16

The rich continue to buy a get-out-of-jail card while others, less fortunate, go to jail without a chance at a free card. And that raises the question: Which money did Countrywide chief Angelo Mozilo use to buy his way out? Was it, as the story said, the “ill-gotten gains” money or the “up from the boot straps” money?

Steve Crandall

Camarillo

You quote federal prosecutors Paul Stern and Harvinder Anand objecting that the probation recommendation for former KB Home executive Bruce Karatz “suggests that there is a two-tiered system of justice, one for well-connected CEOs who can break the rules, secretly inflate their compensation and lie about it with virtual impunity, while ordinary citizens … will face far more serious penal consequences.”

Well, duh, welcome to Bonehead Law School 101. We see the two-tiered system every day — on your front page: Angelo Mozilo skips.

Jim Lynch

Cardiff, Calif.

Attention kids! White-collar crime pays, even if you get caught. I don’t think Mozilo’s settlement deal constitutes much of a deterrent to others who seek to enrich themselves while “misguiding” their investors. And if you do go to trial? Just look to the U.S. probation office’s recommended sentence for convicted fraudster Karatz for comfort.

John Brock

Hansville, Wash.

There’s a saying: “Steal a loaf of bread and go to jail.”

During my (long-ago) youth, my Dutch Reformed Church minister advised: “If you must steal, steal a million dollars and stay out of jail.”

Since then, only the dollar amount has changed. I wonder if the Countrywide execs had the same pastor?

Bob Nyboer

Fullerton

Are you joking? The SEC settled with Mozilo and some of his cohorts for a “fine” — which Bank of America and insurance companies will largely pay.

How is that a fitting outcome? Where is the justice for former Countrywide Financial shareholders “who lost billions when the company’s stock price plunged as defaults on home loans surged”?

Carol Browne

Hermosa Beach

Bullying is no laughing matter

Re “Fighting the bullies,” Editorial, Oct. 14

Bullying behavior happens much more frequently than we hear about and in many different settings.

Given this wave of attention, I am curious as to why there has not been an outcry against a TV commercial that depicts the hazing of an intern in the corporate offices? Is it “funny” and not dangerous because the intern is being dipped upside down in a vat of milkshake while others laugh? Isn’t the intern suffering pain and humiliation, not to mention the possibility of choking and drowning?

Melissa Jaunal

Fontana

We agree wholeheartedly that good anti-bullying programs must engage the entire school community, including parents.

In the aftermath of recent tragic suicides, we are reminded just how important it is to join forces and combat bullying. We need to show young people that they are not alone in their struggle, and provide tools to help the community intervene.

Cyber-bullying, in particular, is a growing problem that affects significant numbers of U.S. teens. Schools need to teach children the effects of bullying and foster a culture of respect and empathy; parents should take an active role in their children’s online activities.

The Anti-Defamation League offers a variety of workshops and programs to help parents, teachers and students deal with bullying.

Alan Jay Weil

Los Angeles

The writer is regional board chair of the Anti-Defamation League.