Thread: Parking is no joyride for residents

http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/06/2 ... 574564.php

Parking is no joyride for residents
Anaheim's Jeffrey-Lynne was redeveloped into Hermosa Village, where street rules are tougher.

By SARAH TULLY
The Orange County Register

ANAHEIM – After her fast-food shift ends around midnight, 22-year-old Griselda circles the roads west of Disneyland to hunt for a parking space, even though she lacks a driver's license.

If she's lucky, she lands a spot across the street from the Hermosa Village apartment complex, where about 200 parking spaces sit empty inside the gates. Some nights, she parks at a shopping center a third of a mile away. At seven months pregnant, it takes almost 20 minutes to walk home.

Her parking options are limited: Her car is no longer allowed in the neighborhood where she has lived for 17 years because she is an undocumented immigrant.

Hermosa Village - formerly Jeffrey-Lynne - is imposing stricter parking-permit rules than most apartment complexes, requiring car registration and insurance as the city cleans up the once crime-ridden neighborhood.

The restrictions create obstacles for residents of the mostly Latino neighborhood, and highlight the debate over whether undocumented immigrants should be able to get driver's licenses. Because they can't, they also can't buy insurance or register their cars, making them ineligible for permits.

So, while tenants don't have to show proof that they live in the country legally, they are essentially required to be legal residents to park there.

The rules also spur other problems: Tenants with more than two cars can't get spaces. Vendor trucks are restricted. And some elderly and disabled tenants say they can't get spots near their homes for caretakers or relatives.

Even as many residents are competing for scarce spaces on the streets outside the 700-unit Hermosa Village, the city is also planning on restricting parking there. This likely will force drivers to search for spots even further out from the Disneyland Resort area.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, about 900 of 1,089 spaces belonged to people with permits.

Tenants such as Griselda are frustrated.

"In no other place do they put these rules," said Griselda, who asked that only her first name be used because of her undocumented-immigrant status.

Cleaning up area

Apartment managers at Hermosa Village say they have valid reasons for the tougher rules, started in April.

The cars are illegal, so they shouldn't be on the street anyway. Too many broken-down cars were cramming the streets and preventing residents from parking near homes.

"The rules apply across the board. If you are here illegally, that's not my problem," said Israel Mata, regional manager for Related Management Co., which runs Hermosa Village.

Parking problems are common countywide, especially in low-income areas with crowded apartments. In some dense Santa Ana neighborhoods, homeowners can obtain street parking permits, but residents of large apartment complexes in the city do not have that option. Complicating matters in Fullerton is a city ban on most street parking from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m.

But Hermosa Village's rules go a step further than most. Most complexes don't ask for registration and insurance, usually requiring only a license plate number to get a permit, said Matt Petteruto, spokesman for the Apartment Association of Orange County.

While police officers are well-aware that unlicensed drivers get behind the wheel, police usually only ticket them when they are stopped for another reason, said Sgt. Rick Martinez, spokesman for the Anaheim Police Department. Police can ticket cars with expired tags, but that is a low priority.

Complaints filed

The parking rules are the latest effort in one of the most prominent redevelopment projects in Orange County. Since 1998, about $71 million in private and public funds have poured into creating affordable housing and revitalizing an area that was plagued with crime and overcrowding, bringing about the renovation of 421 apartments and the addition of a community center.

While the city initiated the redevelopment, a private management company is charged with running the renovated apartments and land inside the gates.

About 100 residents have sent letters to City Hall to complain about the new rules. Despite the objections, some residents have noticed that the streets inside the gate are cleaner and that their lives are easier because parking spots are guaranteed with a permit.

Sgt. Jamie Wilkes, who heads the community-policing team in south Anaheim, said the permits themselves haven't resulted in less crime or more tickets. But he thinks the parking rules may prevent problems from returning in the long term. For example, without parking spaces, families will be discouraged from renting out rooms and crowding apartments.

But in the short term, neighbors and police have noticed an increase in traffic and parked cars on the streets outside the gates since the permits inside started.

In particular, vendor trucks are parking on outside streets since Hermosa managers restricted hours inside the gates, causing buyers to dash across the street or double-park to pick up goods.

In response, the City Council earlier this month voted to restrict street parking outside Hermosa Village to residents only, which could start later this summer. Apartment managers agreed to extend the hours for vendors inside the gates, although the sellers still oppose the rules.

"I think it will be much safer. Now we won't have to worry about seeing children and adults and double-parked cars on the street," said resident Margaret Patino, who lives on a permitted street south of Hermosa Village. "We have a tendency to go the other direction or go slowly down the street. You never know when someone's going to pop out at you."

"We have a tendency to go the other direction or go slowly down the street. You never know when someone's going to pop out at you."

Quote: "You never know when someone's going to POP OUT at you"!!



This is the consequence of too many people for the economy to sustain. Not enough parking and people all over the place. It's creepy!!

I note another Anchor Baby on the way!!

God Help Us.

At seven months pregnant, it takes almost 20 minutes to walk home.

Don't worry, Griselda.

In two months you're going to win the immigration lottery.

Count!!

Do you remember the Draft Lottery?

How about a Deportation Lottery?

Weekly drawings at the local Telemundo!!

The restrictions create obstacles for residents of the mostly Latino neighborhood, and highlight the debate over whether undocumented immigrants should be able to get driver's licenses. Because they can't, they also can't buy insurance or register their cars, making them ineligible for permits.

Here's a sob story partially about a 22 year old umarried, soon to be mother, illegal alien who works for near minimum wage at a fast food joint.

Now, are we supposed to believe that if she only had a drivers license, she'd use part of the $200 per week or so that she takes home to buy car insurance? And pay to register her car?

I suppose that she'll also buy health insurance with what she's got left over, so as to not burden society with her and her childs health needs.

We're supposed to really believe this?

Now multiply this woman's situation by a couple of million to grasp what's happening all over this country. That's the real story. Too bad the reporter didn't see it.

There's obviously a maximum IQ limit for reporters, otherwise they couldn't crank out this tripe.

And yes, Judy, I remember the draft lottery well. I even remember my number.

Good Points CountFloyd!!

Was your number called?

Was your number called?

I called it too close for comfort.

Was your number called?

I called it too close for comfort.

"Too close for comfort"...understand!

I don't suppose there's a way to delete double posts?

I seem to be doing that a lot, lately.