West Hollywood is changing a much-hated parking rule after disability advocates Shane and Hannah Burcaw fought a ticket they received last month.
The Burcaws run a popular YouTube channel that documents the life and love story of the couple, better known as Squirmy and Grubs, one of whom is disabled. On a recent episode of their podcast “Junkyard Mayhem,” they discussed their experience getting ticketed for reversing into a parking spot late last month after meeting their agent for lunch in WeHo.
They explained that parking in the area was challenging, and most spots did not work for them because their car required three feet of clearance for Shane to get out with his wheelchair. After searching for a parking lot, they found only one spot, but it was on the wrong side for Shane’s ramp, so Hannah reversed in. They later spotted a sign that said “head in parking only.”
Hannah could not understand the reasoning, and she’s not the only one. WEHOville readers pointed out the same issue in February.
There were no other parking options, so the couple decided to risk it.
They returned from lunch to find a $60 fine with the note “failure to obey sign.”
Hannah took a photo of Shane in the area and wrote an appeal to the parking enforcement office, who denied it five days later.
Two weeks later, the couple posted an update saying the rule had been changed after one of their followers emailed City Council, who said the rule existed so “parking officers don’t have to walk around the vehicle to check the plate number.” Hannah called it “the most asinine reasoning behind that rule that I have ever heard.”
But in light of their situation, City Hall decided to avoid further “unintended repercussions” and told the couple they’d remove the signs from all of their parking lots in West Hollywood. Now, you can pull in or back up into any parking spot in town.
An official with West Hollywood parking enforcement confirmed the regulation change in a statement to Insider that the head-in parking requirements existed “to facilitate the City’s license plate recognition system used for parking enforcement.” The statement added, “The City of West Hollywood is appreciative about the constructive feedback it received regarding these impacts. As a result, the City has responded by removing head-in parking requirements and related signage from parking lots in West Hollywood.”
The one and only time that I was pulled over by the LASD, in my 24 years of living in this community, was for not having front plates on my Jeep. So the reasoning makes no sense. Apparently, it’s unlawful to not have plates on the front of your vehicle. And if parking enforcement can’t get their lazy asses to get out of their cars for vehicles that are parked that way, I don’t know what to say. Maybe they should be ticketing people for not having front plates. Apparently that’s the law, or it was, 20 years ago, when… Read more »
Seems like a City of False Compassion, only deemed compassionate when receiving some type of self serving award. Very sad practice.
So City Council does not want the Sheriff to monitor license plates on unregistered vehicles but it is okay for parking enforcement to check any plate at any time. I guess that reflects our priorities.
Funny, Beverly Hills PD actually cruises their city parking lots looking at the front of cars and ticketing those who don’t have front plates (unless they’re from a state that only issues rear ones.)
I’m kind of shocked that WeHo is choosing to reward laziness and ignore a revenue stream..
Need your help developers own city hall most a bags men & women for the developers. Tom xxx-xxx-xxxx flores park sold to the highest developer 758,000 building permit ,
they should not have ticketed him in the first place if he had a disabled placard!
I certainly believe the City should have dismissed the ticket upon reviewing the facts in this case, but I’m interested to hear your reasoning for giving a free pass whenever a disabled placard is present.
There needs to be a civilian appeals board for parking tickets as I’ve heard MANY stories where tickets should have been voided and the city auto-denies EVERYTHING without a 2nd thought. It’s ridiculous.
Maybe the Transportation Commission could take on that responsibility? It would help them understand the real world impacts of our parking policies and eliminate these sorts of snafus.
It is a farce. It must be a state requirement of due process, which is an automatic denial.
They will write tickets for not turning your wheels toward the curb even if you are parked on a flat street and the incline on that street doesn’t begin for a hundred feet which is where they have the sign to turn your wheels towards the curb. I just got a ticket this week for that and if they don’t reverse it I wonder how they can justify it.
i think the “head in parking only” signs caused a lot of confusion in west hollywood and led to a lot of arrests for lewd behavior.
The broke the law at the time, the ticket should stand. Besides, the City can use the money to pay employees like John Keno the nearly $400,000 per year in salary and benefits. And when he eventually retires, I suspect the City will be paying most of that per year so he can have a luxurious retirement.
At some point the City will simply exist to pay the pensions of City Hall management.
The company I used to work for required that I back any company vehicle I drove into a parking space headout.This was to prevent any backing accidents if the vehicle was parked the traditional head-in way.On top of that,I had to place a safety cone at the front of the vehicle for safety.
I agreed with this practice and I started doing the same whenever I parked my own car.It can be hazardous when backing a vehicle out of a spot.It can’t be done everywhere,but I try to follow this practice when I can.
But they can still give out tickets for cars, especially Tesla’s, missing front license plates 🙂
You do know there is a requirement by the state of California that you have front license plates. of course that only applies to cars under $40,000.
WeHo Parking Enforcement still can issue tickets for no front plate … but they won’t write those. Not sure why.
They also can write for expired registration, but they don’t.
They will not issue tickets on private property lots for parking in a handicap space without a placard. They will write it on a city lot, but not on private property.
@Benjamin Story – Who provided this information to you and do you know it to be true? It doesn’t sound correct to me, but I have no personal knowledge. Maybe WeHoVille can do a follow up story on this???
A WeHo Parking Enforcement employee told me that.