Sacramento Considers Crackdown On Cars, Trailers Overstaying Welcome On City Streets
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The city of Sacramento is looking at ways to crack down on people parking on city streets too long.
City leaders say some people are abusing a rule that says people can't park a car in one spot for more than three days.
Living and working in parts of Sacramento can be a real headache when you're trying to find a parking spot.
"Working downtown is horrible trying to park," said Kristiana Butler, who works in downtown. "There is not adequate parking."
And some places are worse than others. In Midtown, there are a lot of people who don't have access to a garage, or can't afford it. So people are left to park in city spaces and move their car every 72 hours by law.
But Matthew Eierman with Sacramento Parking Enforcement says some people are leaving their cars parked in the same spot for weeks, or longer.
"It's usually the vehicle that has dust on it, and it's been there for months," he said.
He is looking at a plan to use license plate readers to track down long term parkers after the city gets a complaint. The cars can quickly read plates, log locations, and notify the city when someone has overstayed their parking welcome, and that could earn them a ticket.
He says trailers are a problem too, as people use city streets to park instead of a garage, driveway or a paid storage facility.
"What we are trying to seek is another tool in our tool box basically to let people know that storage on city streets is prohibited," he said.
Some drivers say they are for anything that helps level the competitive parking playing field, while others say coming down on people who can't afford a garage just isn't fair.
So what happens if you live and park on a city street and go on a vacation for a few days. Is the city going to immediately write you a ticket? Eierman says no, they aren't going to proactively bust small-time offenders.
