San Pablo residents face looming crackdown on parking in front yards
SAN PABLO – Police in San Pablo are going to be increasing enforcement of the city's parking ordinances.
The department said the goal is to clean up the neighborhoods, but residents say it's a more complicated issue.
Ernestina Chan has lived in San Pablo for five years. She lives in an 828 square foot home with their bedrooms and one bathroom along with her husband, their three children, her brother, and her parents. That's five adults, and each one has a car.
Last month she got a $100 parking ticket from the city of San Pablo for parking her car in her front yard.
"It's really hard to park, and they're just giving us tickets," Chan told KPIX 5.
Chan said there simply isn't enough street parking for everyone.
The ordinances themselves aren't new, but police said they've had an increase in complaints from residents about blight - issues like multiple cars being parked in front or side yards, as well as cars and car parts blocking sidewalks, plus reports of old cars basically abandoned in front of houses.
Some residents say for the city to keep growing, the streets have to get cleaned up.
"San Pablo is looking good, but those types of situations, it makes the city bad," Marvin Escalante said.
Escalante said he has lived in San Pablo for more than 20 years and has seen the city grow a lot over the last two decades.
Others said it's not fair for the city to first create a parking issue, then punish residents for parking where they can.
"We got a parking ticket for two cars being parked on the rocks on our private property," says Christina Singh, who is Chan's neighbor.
According to Singh, the city made the streets in her neighborhood too narrow, so some people park on the sidewalks, but she chose to park in her yard.
Singh said she did that because she didn't want her car to get sideswiped and end up with a hefty repair bill. Then in October she got a ticket, just like her neighbor.
"I am very frustrated. So is my husband, so we are like figuring out what the heck to do and where to park our cars now," Singh told KPIX 5.
Police say their main goal is to educate people about the ordinance and where they can and can't park, but if cars aren't moved by December 1st, then they'll start writing tickets.
