City of Oakland parking ticket policy called 'not fair'

By Matthai Kuruvila / Oakland Tribune

Oakland parking officers were ordered to avoid enforcing neighborhood parking violations in two of the city's wealthier neighborhoods but told to continue enforcing the same violations in the rest of the city, according to a city memo obtained by The Chronicle.

The July order is corroborated by interviews with three parking officers, who said they and their colleagues had complained about what they deemed a discriminatory practice since it began last summer - to no avail.

"It's not fair," said Shirnell Smith, 44, a parking officer for 22 years who has lived in Oakland for 24 years. Smith and the union representing parking officers said the policy has resulted in tickets being issued disproportionately to poor, black and Latino people.

The accusations cast a new light on one of Oakland's most contentious issues during the past year. Desperate for new revenue in a faltering economy, the City Council in June increased parking fines, meter rates, hours of enforcement and enforcement in neighborhoods.

The parking department created a new work shift to ticket neighborhoods at night. As part of that enforcement, parking officers ticketed residents for violations that had been a way of life for decades.

The most controversial tickets in residential neighborhoods were issued for parking on sidewalks and parking in the wrong direction. Residents told the city and The Chronicle that some streets are so narrow that emergency vehicles cannot get through unless they park like that.

Under pressure from businesses that complained the new parking rules were keeping customers away, the council in October rescinded only the meter enforcement from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., but left other elements in place.