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City of Los Angeles Parking Violations Bureau
Rating Details »
Category: Public Services & Government [Edit]
Neighborhood: Downtown312 W 2nd St
Los Angeles, CA 90189
37 reviews for City of Los Angeles Parking Violations Bureau
Parking meters have doubled!
$4.00 to park for an hour in some places!
I'm supposed to carry six rolls of quarters in the glove box?
When you make over 134 MILLION a year in revenue for the city, you know you're going to be pissing off a lot of people. Especially when it's pretty much all a "blind tax" on the public.
That's what parking tickets are. I know, I know. I should have read the sign. Well, every once in a while, like in the even that you go out and put more money into the meter, that you're still ticketed because you have past the two hour mark.. even if there's money in the meter, that just pushes your buttons as some mean ass shit.
Then you have the cases where the parking enforcement would come about, ticket you for street sweeping cleaning and the street sweepers wouldn't be working that street. I got a ticket once for parking at 12:05 in a section that was no parking 8-12. So... that ended 5 minutes prior, but since the sweeper was late.. yeah.
Then they really don't make it any easier to fight the ticket once you have it. You pretty much have to pay it and then pray that you're going to win.. you wont. The system is stacked against you and this is, in every sense of the word, a blind tax to generate more money for the city.
Then you have to watch it for when you get a ticket you didn't even know about. I got one, on what must have been a rainy day because I didn't see anything around. I assume it was destroyed by the water. But a month later when I received a letter letting me know I didn't pay a parking ticket and the fine went up a whole $100 more was I shocked. Trying to fight that down was a worthless venture.
In the end, screw the cities parking enforcement. They sure are quick to issue tickets but are slow to do anything that will improve the cities streets.
/end ran.
I hate, despise, and abhor parking enforcement. Street non-cleaning tickets. Love looking at the "by the order of the governor" price has now increased, also.
I adore waiting on the phone monthly to check to see if I have tickets that I never saw. The why, rain or shine? I do not care. Disappearing parking tickets.
Spent 400 dollars last month. Thanks. All due to street cleaning. Construction across the street took up a google of spaces.
My favorite in the last two months on street cleaning days....I was parked a few smidgens too far on the sidewalk. I did not have a choice. But they bothered to measure a couple of inches. GRRRRRR.
Absolutely unequivocally my pet peeve.
Add those ridiculous new signs. Huh. They exist in Hollywood. Hmmm. This is taller than a Palm tree. What the hell? Takes two people reading as fast as possible to figure out if you can park at all.
There is always a tiny chance of a Valet. Or we could all have limo's.
If I ever see one dying, I'll walk the other way.
Here is my small contribution to rage against the machine.
http://www.youtube.com...
Vultures in eco-friendly cars - a new breed. They all in general appear to be walking role models for Slimfast and Jenny Craig. Must be all that sitting and sleeping in the cars that I see parked around the corner while they take coffee breaks, extended lunch time naps, extended afternoon breaks and pre-dinner naps. This must the most passive aggressive job that anyone can apply for. They don't appear to have any people skills at all, are all super aggressive in non obtrusive areas and don't appear to operate or approach the public with any modicum of decency. They interpret traffic markings as freely as their daily ticket quota demands. They are a rogue breed of demonic robots programmed by a revenue hungry City of LA that roams unchecked in every neighborhood.
I know every municipality is broke, and I don't usually get jacked up if I get a ticket I may have deserved....but Jesus Christos!! On San Vicente in OJ Ville (Brentwood) I get hit for no front license plate.
Really? That's not even done in Newport......idiots.....
Cirque du so lame.
i hate you guys. nobody likes a parking enforcer. except for that one guy who gave you a 5 star review. But I guess you're just doing your job and someones gotta do it.
Except for that d!ck who gave me a ticket last year while I was legally parked in a residential area for not having any plates in front of my car..
It's like you were driving around LOOKING to give those kinds of tickets. Sneaky.
If I call them all cocksuckers does that make me an angry white male?
Do not underestimate Parking Violations Bureau Officers. They are a bunch of slimebags and they will FIND a way to give you a ticket, even if you're in your car, with it on. Be careful. They are capable of trickery of the worst kind.
This department is unbelievably corrupt and laden with more red tape than you would believe. But hey, that's the City of Angels for you. I like it that I see the guy who gave me a totally bogus $345 ticket on a regular basis now - that little asshole is always driving around, preparing to make yet another person's day completely miserable. I enjoy giving him the finger every time I pass him. (I'm contesting the ticket, btw - but of course, I had to pay it first.) I hope he has a miserable life. But then, if he works for the Parking Violations Bureau, that's pretty much a guarantee.
is this place run by the mafia?
today i called to ask why the parking ticket i was appealing is now doubled and a very abrasive sounding gang banger girl answered. are they allowing community service to be done at the parking offices now? i guess thugs and tweakers need jobs too but damn... i'd like a little professionalism when it comes to dealing with the money they are stealing from me.
what a joke.
You cost me $200 in two weeks. You single me out!
Today I'm cutting a $58 check for a parking violation to the fine city of Los Angeles.
Not only do they make it next to impossible to contest a citation, they also don't make it easy to pay.
I got the "we reviewed you're case, but the citation is still valid" letter with the appeals process, which of course, makes it very difficult to contest. Even if you do set a date for a hearing, you have to pay the fine anyway.
Great, where do I send the check to? How do I make it out? You'd think the information would be included in the letter right?
Of course not! That'd be too easy! Plus, the City would claim that they didn't receive (or I'm thinking, process) you're check, so they'd tack on an additional penalty. C'mon! We're in a recession! The City need more money! It would not surprise me in the least if the City pulled off that kind of, well, for the lack of a better word...shit.
So, I go online, find the info I need and had to change the PO Box (b/c the return envelope I got was for correspondence and I ain't wasting one of my envelopes). The envelope was also labelled 'Correspondence', so I line through that and wrote 'Payment Enclosed', so some poor City worker in the mail room makes sure my shit goes to the right department.
Of course, me being the Machiavellian person I can be (sometimes), I have those personalize checks that have a slogan/saying/witty comment. Mine say "Money can't buy happiness but it helps make the payments." So, I do another strike through 'make the payments' and include 'but it keep LAPVB busy and L.A. in the black (sorta)'.
As far as I know from my limited banking experience, that check is still a negotiable instrument. Check number, routing number, make out to the correct party and amount, citation number listed, etc. If they don't like my comment, they can refund me and waive the citation.
Also goes without saying that LAPVB is going to stay Sh*t Listed until I'm dead, the end of Yelp, or the heat-death of the solar system, whichever occurs first.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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8/24/2009
I supposedly received a parking citation on 5/6/09 while canvassing the Harbor Gateway area of Los… Read more »
It's obvious that the meter maids need a hug. They find joy in making people miserable with tickets! I parked on hollywood blvd where the sign did NOT say pay the meter, but I got a ticket that said i was there for 3 hours when it was only 1.5 hours for $50! I read the sign and nobody else was parked on the street, and some asshole targeted me. No lunch for me this week...
waving my big, middle finger at them, AGAIN!
Okay, so these people DO work hard... we wouldn't all be complaining if they weren't doing their jobs. Now, do I like it? No... But, it's their job and it's a sucky one- kind of like the day laborers outside of Home Depot... sucks to have that job, but you do what you have to in order to bring home the bacon.
That said, Officer Kimmons,WTF?! I admit, I have had tickets before and most often I earned them... but giving me a ticket after 6pm for an expired meter that operates until 6pm is just plane silly. I read the posted signs and meters, why can't you?
Now, I have to take my valuable time trying to contest this BS ticket, and for what? Because you screwed up, I have to suffer?
BTW- to the guy who parked in the Handicapped spot... it's a hefty ticket and there is no way around it. My grandfather is handicapped and he often has a tough time finding free spaces- because people like you "run in for just a minute" and take up their spots. It should be a blessing you didn't get chewed out by a handicapped person... which is often fun to watch but you can't argue with them, since they always have a point about this.
So, the parking enforcement was just sticking up for those less fortunate people who can't "run in for a minute" like you can.
WTF? I thought they were supposed to be all fancy with their online technology. I get a parking ticket, try to log in and pay for it later that day... and it's not in the system??? Irony, I say... I'm actually trying to PAY them, and they won't take their money.
How about this to help fix LA's budget crisis and pay off Michael Jackson's memorial... sweep the streets once a month, so we don't need as many meter maids and their little white cars. Do they need to go out once a week? Chicago doesn't feel that way. Or, how about getting rid of the cars and making them walk. Most of them look like they need it. Call it an employee health plan.
Okay...these people really grind my gears. Let's start with the bullshit ticket I got. I was parked on the street in Hollywood where there was a meter. As we're walking to the car, I notice the cars parked behind me have tickets and I thought "Oh...those f*ckers better not have given me a ticket." As we're walking and seeing more cars with tickets...you kinda have that pissed off feeling and walk even faster to the car. Yep...I had a ticket. It wasn't because I was parked in red, meter expired...it was because I was "parked in a no parking zone through certain hours." No no no...I made sure of this. The sign said no parking on Wednesdays 9am - 12pm. First of all...it wasn't even a wednesday...and it was a FRIDAY!!! Other people get to their car as well and pissed off about their ticket. I started taking pictures of the signs and everyone else did as well. Okay...so, I go to the damn place to pay for this ticket...or not (thinking I would prove them wrong). I explained everything to her, gave her the picture. The bitch looked at it and ripped it up and said $60.00 please? I looked at my husband and we started laughing and she said "that sign doesn't apply to that area." I said "ohhh right...because you were there." Wrote a check, gave it to her and she said have a nice day. As we were walking out I turned around and gave her the finger (as my husband pulled me away...he's not one to cause trouble). I then yelled at him and he said "hey...would you rather have me take you out or security?" He had a point...
So...on another night...my hubby and I came home around 2am and someone is blocking our driveway with their car. They parked in front of another car thinking they could fit but never bothered to actually look to see if they were blocking our driveway. We couldn't get in so I called these bastards and give the operator our address, cross streets, etc. She said "would you like the car towed or cited? I said "well ummm...I'm gonna go with towed because we can't enter our driveway." She said "ok...an office is ON HIS WAY. He will call you when he's outside" So...hubby and I are chillin in the car....waitin...singing....waiting....and nothing. No parking enforcer officer. We waited about an hour and a half and I said screw it...let's just drive over the neighbors yard to get to our driveway. And really, we thought they weren't coming so we did it. We go inside, ready to crash and this guy calls saying "Hi, this is so and so and you reported a car blocking your driveway." I said "uh, yeah....that guy left." "He said "oh really? Great. Have a nice night." Stupid son of a bitch...I wanted to go out there and beat his ass. Anyway...I don't know why but about 15 minutes after he called I looked out the window and the parking enforcement guy was still out there. I called my husband to come look out and we couldn't figure out why the dude was out there...kinda creepy. He must have been sitting out there for a total of 45 minutes. Maybe I should have went outside to beat his ass....
Why all the one-star hate? LA parking cops are the most competent, adroit, on-the-ball employees I've ever met.
For your consideration: Saturday morning I crashed at a friend's in lieu of driving home drunker than Bradley S. when he realized he wasn't Elite '09. Figuring that my parking faux pas (rear end extended into a red zone) would only last a few hours of the wee early weekend morning, ~1am to 5am to be exact, I thought I could escape the long arm of the parking violations law.
Wrong. Incorrecto. Faux. Falsch. Mali. [Chinese characters that Yelp doesn't support]. Ongwray.
Yep. Sometime between those four hours on a freezing, raining, Saturday morning, some diligent parking enforcement officer issued me a ticket... in a plastic zip-loc, no less to ensure I couldn't protest by claiming rain related illegibility.
Fuck the postal service. LA parking cops will do their jobs and ticket your ass in rain, sleet, snow, floods, earthquakes, riots, typhoons, biblical plagues as described in the Book of Exodus, and all other natural disasters/acts of God. That's how committed and skilled they are.
I don't know why we keep sending sending the same bozos to Washington as our elected officials. LA parking cops are SO damn competent, I'm convinced that if Congress were composed of them, we'd have universal healthcare and oil independence. For that matter, I bet parking cops could broker Middle East peace, decipher what herbs and spices are in the Colonel's recipe, AND help Jack Bauer save Los Angeles.
In twenty-three hours.
So on behalf of Yelp, dear parking enforcement officials, I apologize for the negativity you've garnered from other reviewers. You're better at screwing people than Peter North experiencing priapism (look it up) thanks to an ill-timed Cialis binge.
I've always wanted to end a review like that. *Checks off bucket list*
They still suck
And I am still deathly frightened of them
And I still haven't paid my tickets
BUT
here's a useful tidbit of info
should you park at a failed meter
rather than just park and walk away
call 1 (877) 215-3958 and report it broken
they will advise you not to park there because "the meter could reset itself at anytime" but as long as the meter says "FAIL" and you report it, if you do get a ticket you can contest it and win
Take that Los Angeles Parking Violations Bureau!
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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1/25/2009
I think these people seriously have it in for me
I think I must support the Los Angeles Parking… Read more »
The meter maids of Los Angeles can be best described by videos capturing their bad behaviour. Here are a couple, with more to come:
http://www.thebusbench...
http://www.thebusbench...
I got a ticket the day after I wrote this review.
They are reading Yelp, you guys! They will leave you a ticket if you write a bad review! Beware!
Either that, or I parked on the wrong side of the street on a street cleaning day. Again. Like a dumbass.
Sigh.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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11/2/2008
When pondering what to write about for my milestone 100th Yelp Review, I thought long and hard about… Read more »
Shady shady SHADY! I got a parking ticket for parking in my ASSIGNED PARKING SPACE in front of my apartment building. I contested it with pictures and a letter from my landlord and of course my appeal was rejected. Even better, the rejection letter did not say why my appeal was rejected, and to mail in my fine within 21 days of the date on the letter. I got the letter in my mailbox MUCH later than 21 days after the letter was dated. WTF. I REALLY effin hate this whole bureau. Retarded monkeys could do their jobs with less shadiness.
Thank you, Officer White! I was visiting Hollywood as a tourist & person throwing my money to your local restaurants, bed & breakfasts, and night life. But since you needed to give me the total baloney ticket for having no front license plate (seriously, who cares???) I will not be coming back!
LA, if your tourism dollars drop, please send your hearty thanks to Officer White!
The most improperly functioning bureaucratic tpiece of s#@$ EVER!
Talking to them like a normal human being will get you nowhere- strike that...talking to them will get you nowhere. When you want to contest your ticket, they will not listen to you. When you are right, they will not listen to you.
The moral of this story is when they pick on you, you really can't do much. they suck, they are unethical, and unprofessional. The California chamber of commerce should really do something...if only CA was not on high alert for just about every type of traffic and parking violations.
i HATE them. Every time I drive by them or see them i yell at them "HEY GET A BETTER JOB" .. i mean seriously..they just hop in their vehicle, go to those certain streets and give out tickets.. how hard is that? I have many friends who didn't go to college, but c'mon this Bureau is filled with un-educated pieces of shit who don't have the brain power to do anything more challenging for them.
and I get tickets for parking in violation of street cleaning days mostly..
but my street never looks clean so what the fuck are we paying for? the construction around the corner has been going on for over half a year..the money ain't goin there. I throw pennies at their hybrids, spit on their hybrids and those people bring out the worst in me..and i'm usually a calm nice guy.
Certain cities have natural rivalries. New York-Boston. Houston-Dallas. Tokyo-Osaka. Singapore-Kuala Lumpur. Milan-Rome. You know, there is a natural rivalry between two cities in California, too...
- Los Angeles, LA, City of Angels, SoCal... and
- San Francisco, SF, City by the Bay, NorCal...
LA - glitz and glam, sprawling metroplis, great weather, bad freeways, warm beaches, empty heads, movie stars, laid back, smog, LAX.
Great Restaurants.
Dodgers, Lakers. KIngs. USC, UCLA.
SF - technology, fog and more fog, cosmopolitan city, cold summers, sophistication, winds, wineries, cold beaches, innovation, SFO.
Great Restaurants.
Giants, Warriors, Sharks. Cal, Stanford.
New Category for comparison:
San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic:
166 Yelp Reviews.
Average Review: 1 star
Meter Violation on Van Ness Avenue: $50
Los Angeles Parking Violations Bureau:
2 Yelp Reviews.
Average Review: 1 star
Meter Violation on Wilshire Boulevard: $40
You decide!
Good luck with the chickensh*t tickets. There's not a chance to get them thrown out.
I suggest writing the Mayor:
http://www.lacity.org/...
and the LA Chamber of Commerce
http://www.lachamber.com/
and telling them that as much as possible that you will spend your money outside of the City. Enough letters of this sort, and the business leaders will lean on the Mayor to stop the madness.
Like anyone else who has driven in LA, I have my own stories of these tickets.
I defy you to live in Los Angeles and avoid getting parking tickets; it's simply impossible. After living in Hollywood the past 2.5 years, with the number of tickets I've got I'm sure I've secured my spot in the Parking Violations Hall of Fame-- picture on the wall, bust in my likeness, gold name plate and everything, the whole sha-banga-bang.
Between alternating street cleaning, loading zones, 15 minute parking, and the meters they certainly have concocted numerous ways to take your hard earned money. Street cleaning is a farce in and of itself. Are the streets noticeably cleaner after that hunk of metal comes by and dampens the pavement and moves the dirt and debris around with the rotating brushes? Not a chance. It's just some contrived plot to extort money under the guise of civil service. I've also devised a scheme dubbed simply "the finagle", in which after searching for legit parking for a reasonable amount of time, I'll park my car in a white loading zone and place an old ticket under the wiper to appear as though it has already been ticketed. The great majority of the time this works and works well, to the point that you can even leave your car their overnight, as most of the meter maids are either too lazy or incompetent to get out and check or figure it out. But once in a blue moon you'll get one of those employee of the month muthaf*ckers who wants to be all they can be and then you get got.
I've also been wrongly ticketed a couple times parking in 15 minute green zones. The posted signs say 15 minute parking from 8a-6p but I've received a couple tickets prior to 8a parking here. The 15 minutes doesn't start until 8a but I've tried contesting them to no avail.
Bottom line I'm not bitter but for the amount of money I've given them over the years I feel somewhat cheated. Yes I've deserved some tickets and paid my penance, but no happy ending? For as much as I've contributed you'd think the least they could do is give me some sucky sucky. Next time I want a boot AND a blowjob.
I finally I though I'd escaped the wrath of the meter maids after my departure from San Francisco only to find that I have received 85 dollars in tickets in a week of being in LA. So, I'm writing to you....The Los Angeles Parking Violations Bureau...please begin construction of the Srinivas R. statue as you have already billed me the first two installments to build a statue in honor of my contributions to your cause of screwing over the car-owning population of Los Angeles. I anticipate additional contributions in the future, and ask that with each contribution a portion of my statue be completed. Please choose body parts accordingly when constructing the statue because a phallic symbol in front of a government building may not go over well with certain city officials. Perhaps that could be the finishing touch you %$$%^$%^$%^$%^ bastards.
Sincerely,
Srinivas R.
p.s. I will do my best not to take a baseball bat to each of the meter maid cars as they are issuing tickets.
It's about time for a class action lawsuit against the Los Angeles Parking Violations Bureau (PVB). They have ripped off thousands of people in the Los Angeles area. On Rip-Off Report we are trying to get together people to make sure that we get a real and fair system in place. I know there are thousands of you out there that have had issues with the LAPVB. It's about time we stick it to them. We have a hotmail you can write to so we can get together. classactionPVB. Let's finally put an end to this problem once and for all.
a s s h o l e s!!
dammittttttt i got a handicap one for when i was inside getting my subway sandwich =(..that was less than like 3 minutes...damn those guys are quick...i'm debating whether to pay it or no since i'll be moving out off LA soon and can't afford the $335 ticket...anybody have experience not paying them?
the rap group LA Symphony had a great song about L.A Parking Enforcement. It was a pretty hilarious and aptly mean portrayal of the life of a meter maid.
The City of LA Parking Violations Bureau serves a purpose, but they have really caused the citizens pain. Reform is in dire order.
I have two main ideas for reform-
1. The meter maid concept needs to be overhauled. If someone needs to park for longer than 2 hours, the City needs to learn the concept of "charge more" for more time. Instead of maybe charging $1 for 2 hours, the City can charge $4 for 4 hours or similar in concept.
What we get today an inconvenient ticket for $40 under the auspices of it being legally acceptable because we violated the terms of the parking agreement. This is administrative hooey designed to over collect and create unnecessary jobs. Someone needs to be publicized for their policies until parking fees are made for convenience of the public and not the city coffers. This is somewhere between income tax and sin tax. Might as well call it "driving tax" if you live in LA.
2. The integrity of the Bureau is total crap. We need to fix the image by fixing the way they address the public.
For example - I recently got a ticket in the San Vincente/Barrington area. I was a few minutes late feeding the meter and was hurrying back to stuff change in so I wouldn't have to pay another $40. Had I been able to give the meter more $$, I would have, but that wasn't an option. Upon arrival, I had a ticket on my Honda, while the Bimmer in back and the LandRover in front did not. These were the same cars that had expired meters when I pulled in and left. This was not a permit area unless you worked there and the owners of the shops NEVER park in front of their own businesses. I checked to make sure... Nope, no permit! Clearly, there was an issue of precident being set. Had I known i was supposed to drive my Lexus that day, I would have.
So, what did I do? I called the Bureau of course! I asked if they had a trial by mail process. They said yes and asked me a few questions about the ticket, ensuring it qualified for a mail trial. Hearing my story, they said, "you do know it will be the officers word against yours, right?" I said yes, but knew that it was up to me to prove it in court (mail or face to face). A few days later I got a note in the mail saying they had reviewed my "statement of facts" by telephone and decided the ticket was valid. Ahem, What?
For those of you with a legal background, you may now pick you jaw up off the floor. The Bureau is now a civil department, so they are now judge, jury, and clerk... possibly many of them are the same people.
Besides the fact that the officer selectively imposed the law in my case, no one briefed me I was providing evidence to be used in a trial over the telephone. Nor... (count the ways)
1. did I sign a deposition or give conscent for waiver over the telephone, but they used information stated by me.
2. did City ID themselves as someone who would be taking a deposition
3. did City Inform me of my rights (acknowledging the person I am speaking with is a Civil Representative of the Law and not just a librarian/clerk).
4. did I say I was acting as my own attorney
Those things did not occur, but the department pretends they did.
If there is to be a conviction and imposition of fines, it is obvious how they are getting what they want because they are deceptive and running a kangaroo court. The letter I received from the Bureau implied an adjudication process occurred with my knowledge using my statement of facts. What statement of facts?
Someone setting policy at the Bureau needs to be woken up because most people just pay the fine and don't think twice. It is hooey. I know the ticket is $40, but it is also just another ticket in a long line of tickets I have paid. My ability to fight one with ease (that I feel conviction over) is just as justified as they pronounce validity and guilt. Improving the process is warranted.
John
do the idiot meter maids even deserve a star??? i mean, yeah they have a job to do, but dang! how about doing it right? i've been wrongfully ticketed twice in the past 2 months for different reasons, in different places. and you have to pay before you can even contest it! of course they won't return your money! don't worry, i'm not a righteous prick. if i were at fault i'd shut up about it. i got dinged for a meter that wasn't functional, and for parking in a no parking zone. hello!...i wasn't parked! i was in my vehicle, with the engine on, while on drive. i was stuck in downtown traffic, and the dingbat thought i was trying to park there! he didn't even have time to complete a citation because i was still driving, so all he got was my license plate # as i was driving off. and it's his word against mine?! man! i wonder if he ticketed that whole street of cars that was stuck there, cuz apparently we all were "parking" on the street!
