Hermosa Beach residents have been warned to curb their tires by the Hermosa Beach Police Department, and recently those warning have turned to tickets.
“It’s actually State law,” Lt. Garth Gaines said. “We have given out warnings for over a month.”
In November and December, the HBPD gave out 146 written warnings that were placed on vehicle windshields. In January, they started ticketing any car that didn’t have their wheels turned in the proper direction. By late-January they had given out 150 tickets.
“We try to be fair and warn as many as we can, but we can’t reach everybody,” Gaines said.
A Letter to the Editor in January voiced local sentiments on the unusual tickets.
“Imagine waking up on Sunday morning, going to church, picking up the paper, getting donuts and coffee and just beginning to relax and enjoy your day off,” local Hermosa Beach resident Casey Clark wrote. “Then you look down the street and see a meter-maid on foot walking up the street passing out tickets to everyone parked on the street, roughly 25 cars, and this was just my block, they may have done the whole city.”
According to Gaines, the city didn’t previously cite vehicles for the infraction, but the HBPD is now reinstating long-forgotten laws.
“We go through this anytime something hasn’t been done in some time or something new comes up,” Gaines said. “It’s funny how this department was run for awhile, people would say ‘don’t cite for this or that,’ so we’re trying to put it back so we have a fair enforcement policy.”
Manhattan Beach, which has been known to cite drivers for not curbing their tires, has a page on its website with instructions for properly parking on hills.
The Hermosa Beach police department will also start citing vehicles that are obstructing cross walks, even if the vehicle is halfway in a garage. They are also going to make sure cars get ticketed or towed that are parked and facing the wrong way.
“Parking and traffic are our biggest complaints in the city,” Gaines said. “People almost shoot each other over parking spaces. We’re just trying to make it fair for everybody.”
Related: Letters to the Editor: Parking tickets, election choices and VIPS
