Century City/ Westwood November 15 – 28, 2019
NEWS CenturyCity-WestwoodNews.com
Virtual Permit Parking for Westwood? City Council looking a developing pilot program By S taff W riter Los Angeles City Council is considering establishing a virtual permit parking pilot program using license plates readers instead of hanging placards to verify a car’s ability to park in a district. A similar program is currently operating within UCLA but a battle between the teacher’s union and university administration at another California university highlights privacy concerns over virtual permit parking. Preferential and Overnight Parking Districts are established throughout Los Angeles to address residential parking impacts from vehicles from outside the community. Beginning in 2018, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) began issuing permits in the form of hangtags. Permit holders must display the hangtags when the vehicle is parked within the district in order to avoid being cited. Some residents, however, feel that hangtags are often inconvenient and cumbersome for some residents. UCLA Transportation recently introduced the Bruin ePermit system where residents' license plates serve as the permit. The Bruin ePermit system works similar-
An LADOT parking enforcement officer tickets a car
ly to a supermarket scanner with a license plate functioning as the barcode. When read, the numbers of the license plate are automatically referenced against the parking database to verify a valid permit. This license plate reading technology is used to manage parking in more than 20 California municipalities and colleges. Recently, Councilmember Koretz who represents Century City and Westwood in-
Photo: LADOT
troduced a motion instructing the Department of Transportation (LADOT) to develop a pilot project that uses license plates as Preferential and Overnight Parking District permits. “By moving to a virtual permit system, the City could improve operational efficiency and offer numerous customer benefits, including, eliminating the need to display a hangtag or move hangtags from
vehicle-to-vehicle and reducing paper, plastic, and resources used during permit production and distribution,” Koretz said. Much of the Century City-Westwood area, with the exception of UCLA and the VA, is within a preferential parking district. While city officials like Koretz seem to welcome the idea, a virtual permit parking program at San Diego State University (SDSU) has faculty and staff in the middle of a debate over concerns about privacy and disciplinary action. In early August, SDSU’s Parking & Transportation Services announced the university would be transitioning to a virtual parking enforcement system, joining several other California State Universities. Students soon grew accustomed to the new system but many faculty and staff have yet to give in. Due to ongoing negotiations between their respective unions, a majority of faculty and staff are still required to display a hanging parking placard, as reported by The Aztec. The California State University Employees Union (CSUEU) is concerned virtual parking systems could be “used to track employees’ attendance or for employee discipline.” According to Robert Yslas, CSUEU Chapter 318 president and SDSU faculty member, the union is worried that the surveillance policy the SDSU is pulling the language from is too broad in its threshold for disciplinary action and fails to clearly define “egregious” behavior.
$10M to Protect Unlawful Evictions? Councilmember Paul Koretz calling for the creation of emergency renters relief program By Sam Catanzaro A Los Angeles elected official representing Westwood, the most expensive zip code to rent an apartment in within California, is proposing spending up to $13 million of city funds to protect individuals in danger of being evicted.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz and Council President Pro Tempore Nury Martinez are calling for the creation of an Emergency Renters Relief Program to protect renters against rent-gouging as a means to evict ahead of the State’s affordable-housing bill, AB 1482, going into effect January 1, 2020. According to Koretz, $10 million in funding will prevent individuals from losing their homes immediately. “In the current high-priced rental market there is a shockingly high percentage of Los Angeles residents who are barely hanging on, living month to month, and far too many are on the precipice of becoming homeless in the face of unscrupulous rent gouging,” Koretz said.
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To that end, Koretz joined Councilwoman Martinez in co-authoring an amending motion last week calling for $2.937 million from the funds for the Right to Counsel program, to protect those individuals in immediate danger of losing their units. “We need to help people who are facing constructive eviction to stay in their homes,” Koretz said. “That is why this emergency renter’s relief will be put to work immediately to prevent hundreds of individuals from being forced out of their apartments while we actively work to combat the bad behavior of some greedy landlords. We already have far too many homeless Angelenos on our street.”
Photo: Getty Images
Councilmember Paul Koretz who represents Westwood and Century City is proposing creating an emergency renters relief program.
EVICT, see page 9
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