Berkeley Parking Enforcement

I wish I can give no stars here! Today I came back from a long day at work in the city to find a ticket on my Mini Cooper which is Parker legally across from my house in area «C». Why? The ticket says the car is 18 inches from curb. I immediately brought the meter from home to measure it and I found it be less than 9 inches. Thank you for officer Blackmon and others who are ruining our day stealing our money and not making us feel home. You are a shame to the community. Just because it’s the end of the month and you have to finish your booklet doesn’t mean accusing people like that!

How do you issue a ticket for not having a parking permit… when there *IS* a parking permit right on the back of my car? Hello genius Officer … thanks for not doing your job and writing frivolous tickets and wasting taxpayer time and not to mention fraying my nerves.
I will appeal obviously. 1 star for having a convenient appeals system online, *if* you have a digital camera. God help me.

I stopped to get a coffee at Starbucks and parked on Oxford St near Berkeley Way. I paid for parking at one of the machines that print out a receipt and I placed it in on my dashboard/​windshield. Returned 15 minutes later and there is a $ 40 parking ticket in my windshield.
I scanned the meter and printing machine– no warning or explanation– period.
I called parking enforcement next day. It turns out that Berkeley is running two different parking systems on the same street. So one side may have traditional parking meters and the other side the printed paper ones.
Even though I paid for my space I didn’t feed the meter. I live in Oakland. There, the printed
receipts are good anywhere, so I was quite unsuspecting.
I disputed the ticket and was told it was «issued correctly».
Again, no explanation as to why. Now I am being forced to pay the $ 40
with an option to have an «administrative review».
It’s one thing to get a parking ticket when you don’t pay– it’s completely another to be fined when it’s perfectly obvious the space has been paid for.
I want to award the Einstein parking scam award to the dickhead who thought up that brain child. Thanks for screwing people over Berkeley!

I got a ticket for violating 2hour parking zone but in fact I had a one day visitor parking permit hung on the rear view mirror as instructed on the back of the permit. Apparent this was a second violation because the officer failed to see the parking permit twice.
Update: My appeal was approved. I got another ticket for using RPP in the wrong zone, which I wasn’t according to the RPP zone on their website. But I realized that they have recently changed the parking sign on that street where I got the citation. I am very disaapointed that they didn’t try to notify the residence living on that street or post notice saying that the parking has changed and RPP would not be exempt. My appeal was of course denied because I parked there for more than 2 hours. I just never noticed they changed the parking sign. So sneaky. Will try to go for a hearing. Figure crossed. But still very dissappointed with the system.

I am a poor graduate student and had a meeting with my dissertation advisor. It ran over by 5 minutes. Within those five minutes, I had gotten a ticket.
I believe Berkeley’s parking enforcement is predatory. Even in Oakland, there is a five-​minute reprieve. But clearly Berkeley needs to soak the public to guarantee its budget/​tax base.
It is a pretty pathetic tactic, but typical of this city’s (state’s?) financial calculations.
Frankly, if I never had to go to Berkeley again in my life, I would be grateful.

Just got one of those restricted parking zone tickets (residential parking only, but they only have one sign for the entire block… easy to miss). It happens. What I’m really upset about is what happened when I went to pay the ticket online. Officer Randle must have put in the wrong address at first, but rather than fixing it, he/​she just gave me a second ticket at the correct address. So now I have two citations to deal with! Kind of hard to be at two addresses (same street number, different streets across town from each other) within a couple minutes. Not only that, but at the other address, there isn’t even restricted parking! You’d think it would be easy to have one of these tickets dismissed, but I guarantee it will be a huge headache before anyone listens. I despise parking departments. They seem to go out of their way to hire the most incompetent people imaginable (either that, or they’re being directed to do sketchy things to bring in more revenue).

I’ll start by saying I’ve gotten multiple citations that I deserved, and I have paid all of them. Annoying, but it’s the way things work.
However, a few weeks back, my girlfriend developed a severe kidney infection. The last time this happened to her, she went into septic shock and nearly died, so I was pretty concerned about taking care of this. Between checking on her, calling various advice nurses, and finally accompanying her to ugent care (she could barely walk) I managed to leave my car parked on an empty residential-​permit-​onlynstreet for 2.5 hours. I got a ticket – fair. I was clearly in violation of the law.
However, I got a note from the urgent care doctor stating that I was in fact dealing with a life threatening illness at the time. I submitted a clear explanation of the mitigating circumstances as well as the doctor’s note, and received a form letter back with no acknowledgment of my specific situation (I don’t think they even read those things) stating that the law is the law and I broke it. While that is technically true, it really rubs me the wrong way that the city that claims to be so fucking compassionate can’t seem to see that making sure someone I love doesn’t die is more important than making sure I don’t take up precious parking space in a residential area over 1 mile from campus for 30 minutes too long on a Tuesday.
The general stuff:
1. $ 2 convenience fee to pay online. Eat an entire buffet of dicks Berkeley. Is it 1995?
2. Street sweeping: Clearly this only gets people who are new to the neighborhood. Maybe a one-​time warning would be nice instead of «welcome to the neighborhood motherfucker! Give us $ 49 ’cause you don’t know how things work yet!»
3. Should the city be allowed to use parking citations to plug holes in their budget? Something about having the same entity be responsible for signage, reviewing protests, and profiting from the prior two items being done poorly just wreaks of a conflict of interest.

The Berkeley meter maid nazis strike again. Parked in a residential neighborhood literally two blocks from my house to go to a grocery store for 10 minutes. Got back to find a meter maid stopped at my car. She said it was «street cleaning» and pointed to a sign. I said, truthfully, I lived in the next town over, which has no laws about ticketing for street cleaning, and I had no idea this street was different. This person, named Navarette, refused not to write up the ticket — for $ 49!
This reminds me how I hate going into Berkeley by car, and how from now on I will try to shop in neighboring towns.

Here’s another ridiculous story for you.
So I’ve gotten a couple parking tickets from the Berkeley Parking Enforcement people and they were legitimate; I parked overtime or in the wrong zone. Ok. Fine. Paid the crazy $ 49 standard violation fee PLUS $ 2 «processing fee» because that is completely a necessary charge.
But the reason for this next ticket is so ridiculous that I feel obligated to tell the rest of the world. I recently received a parking violation on my motorcycle for not paying the meter when I was BETWEEN the two metered spots. At the time too, there were cars parked in both spots. I put my motorcycle exactly between them, where the white painted divider line is. How am I, as a motorcycle, supposed to feed the meter when I’m not even in the spot, and cars can park on either side of me and feed the meter. I find this RIDICULOUS! And the real salt in the wound is the officer charged me $ 65 instead of the standard $ 49. WHY?
I would attempt an appeal but reading the other reviews about how long, tedious, and hard the process is, I value my time more and I’m going to pay the fine. But I am not ok with this!

I received a ticket on July 29^th. Even though I had a one day parking pass displayed on my review mirror. I guess the meter maids in Berkeley are not required to look at the car head on. Perhaps you should make it clear on the permits that sun visors will require that the meter-​maids move out and off their ass to make sure that a car does not actually have a permit.
I had the sun visor on my car, but the permit was still visible I made sure of it before I left, but yet a few hours later when I returned i found myself with a ticket.
I asked for a review and I included a picture of the permit displayed on my car along with my request for a review and still got denied.
It’s unfortunate that a city like Berkeley cant be an honest city.

Another bad review for Berkeley Parking Enforcement? It’s not for the cops who have given me countless tickets. Instead, I’d like to talk about the bad practices here.
You thought DMV was bad? Berkeley Parking Customer Service Center takes it to the next level.
I’ve already paid for my renewal online; it’s just that my permit hasn’t come in the mail. Even so, with proof of purchase and everything, they said I would be ticketed if I parked on the street. As a returning customer and a resident with proof of residency, this is a horrible way to treat your customers.
They even said I can’t pick it up in the office and I’d have to wait for it to be mailed. The office is less than a mile away. Seriously? I’ve paid and done my dues as a citizen, let me have my parking.
Even DMV allows exceptions and fix-​it cases.
Also, the people here are some of the rudest I’ve met. You thought DMV employees had a bad day? These guys honestly make me hate their jobs for them. At the very least, be cordial to your customers if they are asking genuine questions. No need for attitude.
I can’t wait to move out of this city, as dear as it is to my heart, if it doesn’t get its act together.
TIP: There’s really no alternative. They have a monopoly. Welcome to the broken political system of America.

After ~2 days, the website for paying parking tickets was updated to only show one street sweeping violation. Revising the review rating up to 4 stars.

I pulled over to accept an incoming call while driving near Virginia St last April and a parking enforcement lady signaled to me it was a no parking zone so I drove off without even stopping my engine.
A few days later, I received a ticket in mail with multiple incorrect information concerning my vehicle. I used their online dispute system and was told they had right to furnish information of the ticket as the staff could not finish the ticket before my car left!
Since the next step was go to Alameda Court to proceed the dispute and I was busy at the time so I paid them $ 51 as they asked in mail. And a few months later, they mailed another bill with $ 82 and I explained I paid and asked them to cash the check but never got any reply. Until yesterday, a collection bill with $ 164 amount.
See, I agreed to pay them $ 51 for just passing by Berkeley and paused for accepting a phone call, I was in the car all the time for the seconds the parking enforcement lady was present. Consider yourself lucky if you went away to get a coffee or something and got a ticket as well :-(
As for the check, I have been mailing payments that way for last 18 years and have yet to see a «missing» payment. Given rampant complaints online that they sent to collection even when someone actually paid, I suspected they might hold the check and still charge me another $ 164. Now, I am supposed to write them a check again.
I have filed a BBB complaint with them and will now see my lawyer for a small claim case or class case (if the lawyer see one fits). I have no issue pay them $ 51 at the very beginning as I gave up my rights to dispute the original ticket but the problem is hey if I mailed them another check of $ 164, next year, the bill doubles again, topping China’s GDP increase rate!

I don’t see what all this backlash is about.
I had a rather pleasant experience with these people.
It was a monday afternoon and as I was walking around running errands I KNEW my meter would be running out. Despite the thought, I decided the risk was worth it and kept shopping.
Sure enough I came back and had a ticket. The ticket was expertly placed on the windshield, so I wouldn’t overlook it. Not too far to the right, not too far to the left. It was obvious that thought went in to its placement.
When I opened the envelope everything was explained very clearly so I wouldn’t be confused. I understood exactly what I had done wrong and how to remedy it. I appreciated all the thought that went in to the design and layout of the ticket, it was very thoughtful.
On top of that, they made it very easy to pay for it! One could use the internet to pay online (the website was conveniently located at the bottom of the ticket) or mail it in by way of the US Postal Service. The address was clearly visible, so it was going to be easy for me to decide how to pay. Should you decide to mail it in, they even go so far as to provide a sticky strip on the envelope (you don’t have to buy your own envelope) so you you don’t have tape it shut yourself. Also the address IS ALREADY PRINTED on the envelope! Very convenient.
I decided to mail in a check, rather than online, mostly because I figured that they went to all the trouble preparing the envelope for me, I didn’t want them to feel bad, as though it were in vein.
Just when I thought things couldn’t get better a notice arrived in the mail for me, reminding me of my citation. The customer service is so good they even follow up in case you missed the ticket on the windshield.
There simply is no way one could complain about this business and I look forward to dealing with them again.

I had recently received a parking citation and had chose to challenge it despite all the hopeless reviews posted about the Berkeley Parking citation appeal process. After filling out a few simple forms and waiting a few months I was able to meet with the Administrative Judge and have my citation removed.
I don’t want to get into too many details but I will explain my rating of three stars:
I didn’t like the fact that I had received a ticket for a poor reason; and I didn’t like the fact that I had to first pay the $ 43 fee for the violation and pray that I win my appeal and get a refund.
I especially hated the fact that I had to first do a written appeal and had an unknown officer claim to have driven out to the disputed location to check the validity of my claim and said that I was making stuff up. Pictures don’t lie and I got to prove that in court.
I DID like the fact that on my day at court the Administrative Judge was very attentive, impartial and ultimately agreed with my dispute and dismissed the parking validation along with a refund check.
Filing an appeal was lengthy and not fun but it can be successful and I would encourage more people to exercise their rights.
Tip: If you do choose to appeal, don’t be discouraged if at first you don’t succeed on the written appeal, you need to go all the way to the Administrative Judge.

These people are nothing but greedy pigs! Parked my car on the street and fed the meter 30 minutes worth and headed to the post office. Returned 15 minutes later and those emotionless meter maid people had left two tickets on my car for not having a front license plate and for not having an updated registration sticker on my back license plate (it was in my car and I had forgotten to put it on there). Did they really need to give me two tickets at the same time? Of course they did because they are heartless robots who only care about money!
When did these meter maids become authorized to ticket me for not having a front license plate or registration sticker??? These people live to make your life miserable so they can profit and increase the money in their city coffers. When I got the notifications in the mail, I looked for a phone number to call and speak with someone. Of course the only number was the number to pay the bill. No other numbers.
And get this: The City of Berkeley’s offices are located in Los Angeles!!! Great job of supporting your local community and creating local jobs. You swindle money from the honest hardworking citizens who visit Berkeley and then ship off that money to Los Angeles. Berkeley Parking Services is nothing but a scam and unfortunately since they are a big government entity, you have no recourse but to pay their scam fines.

In the past year, I’ve gotten to know Berkeley Parking Enforcement quite well. Expired meters, 2 hour parking violations, street cleaning citations, expired tags, tickets back to back: I’ve seen it all.
Having just moved from a city that did not enforce residential parking, I was not initially aware of this urban phenomenon called street cleaning. That is, of course, until I got my first ticket. OK, got it now, I told myself: Just make sure not to park on the third Friday of every month and you’ll be fine.
But, because BPE is so thoughtful and kind, it just can’t seem to let you go without a monthly surprise. Just as I was about to move my car the next month to a parking garage, I saw another citation. Street sweeping is on Thursdays now? Fine, I guess I can just park on the street. But for some reason, I decide to move my car to an open spot on the other side of the street, so that it’d be immediately in front of my house. And, lo and behold, I got another ticket the next day. That’s when I realized different sides of the street were cleaned on different days.
The next month brought me even more surprises: I lived on a T-​intersection and BPE kindly taught me that the cleaning dates on the crossing street were different. I also learned that my residential permit did not apply to every spot on my street and that the sign needed to explicitly mention the permit exemption. And I once drove a friend to CREAM, just two blocks away from my house, and walked him home after, forgetting that we’d driven there: It was 24 hours and three parking tickets later that I realized I had inadvertently left my car in a metered spot.
In many ways, parking citations are a tax you simply have to accept living in a city. But the sheer ruthlessness with which parking ordinances are enforced, the ambiguous and often obstructed signage, and the paucity of parking make these fines difficult to swallow. Get in your car to leave just as a parking enforcement officer is pulling up behind you? Well, you better get out fast because he/​she might write you up as you are driving away! Forget to update the tag on your parked car and haven’t driven it in 48 hours since it expired? Well, brace yourself for three little notes on your dashboard.
It’s not as if we don’t try — As much as the city needs the money, who wants to dish out $ 50+ bucks for a street cleaning ticket? Circling for a spot on the right side of the street the night before sweeping, making sure you’ve read all the signs within 100 feet from your car, parking 6 blocks from your home on the night of a football game, ensuring that your car doesn’t creep into any colored curb territory: You do it all, yet somehow they manage to get you. It’s not that I could have flown to Paris and back with all the money that I’ve spent on parking tickets that gets me the most: It’s knowing that you’ve done your best, but being told you’re just not good enough, even when you’ve followed the rules. That if you get an unwarranted ticket, it’s best to pay it than waste an entire day contesting it. And that even in your own front yard, you’re helpless.

Losers

Berkeley Parking Enforcement is OK, now that I’ve figured out most of the rules and how to game them. It’s actually great sport once I decided that getting even, rather than mad was a better way to go. Take my Cal Class tonight and my close attention to metered parking versus the neighborhood time limit. Those little City «golf carts» pretty much ignore the latter. However, life isn’t perfect as I was recently caught up in the «Street Sweeping» ticket scam. What’s next, snow removal days?
My friend Tam’s 2012 Sticker ticket reminds me of a small town Iowa cop who tickets everyone driving 5 mph over an artificially low local speed limit. It has nothing to do with strict enforcement and parking «equity», and everything to do with shameless revenue generation.

A few months ago, I parked on 4^th Street, paid my meter and did a little shopping. I returned to my car with time still on the meter and a ticket on my car. Why? Well, I hadn’t yet put my 2011 sticker on my car and was given a ticket for «expired plates». Yep, a parked car ticketed for ANYTHING in Berkeley.
Instead of fighting this $ 25.00 ticket (I had the sticker in the glove box), I just sent a check in for the damn thing. Wouldn’t you know it, but a couple of months later, I got a collection notice in the mail from the City of Berkeley for an unpaid parking ticket. WTF. I had a registered vehicle, I paid the friggin ticket and now this? I promptly called, and was informed that it was really a «collection company that can’t report to a credit bureau» but to send a copy of my check to them from my bank.
If there weren’t so many cool things to do in Berkeley and especially on 4^th Street I wouldn’t go back.