City of Angles

Now that L.A. charges for metered street parking until 8 p.m., including Sundays, people are tired and they sure as hell aren't going to take it anymore! Well, er, at least that's what they're muttering in response to Michael Goldstein's piece "Parking: A Fine Mess" (Feb. 26):

"My family and I lived in Southern California for many years," writes Cindy Henning. "We packed up our three small children two and a half years ago and moved to Clarksville, Tennessee. After reading this article I remember why we left. California is known country-wide as a money pit."

Julie, who has not yet moved to Tennessee, notes that "the parking fines in L.A. are out of hand and ludicrous. In general there is not enough parking for residents in this city. Poor apartment dwellers are at a huge disadvantage. The meter maid waits like a tiger ready to pounce on your car. The weekly street-cleaning forces people to move their cars at the crack of dawn and circle the neighborhood to find a spot."

And someone who wishes to be called ParkingTicketGame adds, "The fines associated with parking tickets and towing in large cities have got to be capped. They are getting to a point where they are ridiculous and go beyond what they were meant to do, which is to remind the motorist to follow parking regulations. As we at parkingticketgame.com research and see, these fines have become a multibillion-dollar–a-year industry all because a driver forgot to move a car or pay a meter."

Final word (at least this week) on this subject goes to Jocelyn, a former Angeleno: "When I was young and poor and living in La-La Land, I seriously LOST my car to the city of L.A. for a few unpaid parking tickets. The fines to get it back were so high that I had no choice but to surrender the car to the city. Now I'm old(er) and rich and live in N.Y. — and guess what? I still don't drive. Cabs and subways for me. Everyone asks me why I left all that sunshine and I tell them the city of L.A. took all my money and then stole my car. I am so happy to be free from all that car-owning bullshit. I'd rather be freezing in N.Y.!"

Freezing in N.Y. or getting iced in L.A. ... such is our choice. Or we could all join the Hennings in Clarksville, Tennessee. Hmmm ...

99 THINGS TO EAT IN L.A. BEFORE YOU GET YOUR NEXT PARKING TICKET
Between last week's cover story by Jonathan Gold ("99 Things to Eat in L.A. Before You Die," Feb. 26) and our annual foodie-heaven event, the Gold Standard, wherein many top restaurants serve a dish or two to event-goers, it was a fun week for L.A. food, if we do say so ourselves. But as anyone who has ever blogged about food knows, foodies are not necessarily nicies, and often they are less than satisfied.

David says, "It reads like the hipster list of what to eat in L.A. to be cool."

Matt says, "You seriously didn't include Roscoe's??? Are you crazy? And I know it's in big bad scary Watts, but you could have thrown in those monster burgers at Hawkins House of Burgers, too. But that's forgivable. Not including Roscoe's is completely unforgivable. You have no credibility with me."

Mike says, "Matt is right about Hawkins. What about grilled Dodger Dogs and Busy Bee Sandwich in San Pedro?"

HT says, "Foie gras?? You should have titled this '99 things to eat in L.A. before they are banned in California in 2012 because of health-code and animal-cruelty concerns.' "

JoeJejune says, "Where's the Persian food? Ghormeh sabzi, fesenjoon, tahdig???"

Charles wonders, "With such a huge Salvadoran community in L.A. and a pupusa spot on almost every block, I'm astonished, being Salvi, that there is no Salvadoran spot listed. Great list, but you even managed an Ethiopian spot. There are more Salvadorans on my block than Ethiopians in L.A."

What can we say? Reader Eddie Lin sums it all up for us: "You can never make everyone happy."

And remember, folks, there's always next year's list. Will Roscoe's be on it? Pupusas? Stay tuned ...

METER MAIDS HAVE FEELINGS, TOO, MAN
Okay, we lied —a few more words on the parking problem, these from the other side: "As a parking-enforcement officer for one of our local cities," writes Officer X, "I must take exception to the cartoon you chose to run on page 11 of your most recent issue (Feb. 19). The cartoon depicts us [parking-enforcement officers] as vultures. We certainly are an easy target but I can assure you, we're not 'out to get' anyone. We are just there (doing our jobs) as a result of bad behavior on the part of the person who parked over the allotted time, or where the sign said not to, or on the lawn, or blocking someone's driveway. You get the idea. If everyone obeyed the parking rules, we would just drive right by. A perfect day for us would be to write zero tickets, which the city wouldn't like, I'm sure (where I am we don't have a quota). The fact that we'd be out of a job if this were the case is not lost on us either. But that'll never happen due to the nature of human beings. Please, folks, if you don't want to see us, take responsibility and do the right thing. We thank you. Check out my blog ParkingIsSuchStreetSorrow.blogspot.com for more."

Well, that just proves it: Everyone has a blog!

SWEAR TO GOD, WE REALLY DO WANT YOUR LETTERS
Rant or rave, rain or shine, we don't care. But we do want a name and some contact info. No cowards here: readerswrite@laweekly.com.