He sent more than 200 emails, photographed dozens of cars and recruited his neighbors. But Jorge Martinez keeps running into the same obstacle: a 72-hour parking rule with a loophole.
Martinez lives in Paramount, but the problem street — 70th Street — lies in North Long Beach.
That has put him on a collision course with Long Beach’s parking enforcement department over a little-known municipal code.
If a vehicle sits in one spot for more than 72 hours, the city can cite and tow the vehicle at its discretion.
Martinez said his frustration isn’t with the people living in their cars — so long as they aren’t waking up his two young children at night by running a generator. Instead, he takes issue with industrial workers who leave their personal vehicles parked outside his home for days while driving work trucks home.
Martinez — tired of the endless loops he makes looking for parking after work — has been emailing photos of cars to the city’s parking enforcement department, urging them to do something about the seemingly abandoned vehicles taking up valuable space on his block.
It’s his last resort after years of parking on his lawn and risking parking tickets in the adjacent neighborhood, which restricts parking through a special permit that Paramount issues for two cars per household.
His neighbors, also tired of circling the block for parking and hauling groceries long distance, now rely on Martinez as the main point of contact.
They send him photos and keep him updated on potential violations while he’s at work. So does his wife.
Martinez has had success in the past getting semi-trucks off his block. More than a year ago, a typical afternoon included semi-trucks parked along the residential street and more trucks idling in the center median.
After Martinez contacted the city of Long Beach about that problem, it put up signs restricting parking for vehicles longer than 22 feet and began ticketing the idling semi-trucks, which had been left running for hours without a driver in sight, Martinez said.
Heavy-duty trucks idling within 100 feet of homes were violating the state’s air quality regulations, Lynda Lambert, a spokesperson for the state’s Air Resources Board, wrote in an email. Anyone who sees potential violations of that rule is encouraged to call 1-800-CUT-SMOG.
Martinez understands some of the idling stems from the semi-truck repair business across the street. But he said some drivers have told him they leave their trucks on the street overnight to avoid paying for truck storage before heading home to shower and change.
By sending emails daily pointing out the parking violations, Martinez is asking for the same response he received when he first began documenting parking violations.
Instead, he said he’s received excuse after excuse.
His latest target: a red pickup truck whose owner gets rides in and out of the neighborhood every week or so to repark it slightly up the block.
Despite photos of the vehicle not moving at least one-tenth of a mile, as required in the ordinance, the city’s parking enforcement department says nothing can be done, according to emails reviewed by the Post.
The ordinance does not prevent a vehicle from reparking in the same general area after it moves that one-tenth of a mile as required by law. So effectively, as long as it moves any distance before the 72 hours are up, it’s in compliance, the city’s public works department told the Long Beach Post in an email.
Without around-the-clock monitoring, it’s impossible to prove that a car didn’t move at least one-tenth of a mile before parking less than that distance away, public works officials said.
Martinez argues that’s against the spirit of the law, which is to prevent people from storing vehicles indefinitely on a street by moving them a car length or two every few days.
Lately, his wife has even wondered if he should give up the campaign. His response: “Maybe at some point I’ll run out of steam, but right now I have a job where I supervise people so I’m like, I got 10 minutes to sneak in an email.”