Finding street parking in a busy neighborhood is often very difficult and for residents in the Los Angeles area of Silver Lake, they’ve been struggling with limited parking for over 20 years, largely because of one local car repair center.
As reported by Jalopnik, since at least 2002, residents in Silver Lake have been complaining about the fleets of Porsches, Ferraris, and Maseratis that are routinely parked in spots that are supposed to be reserved for local residents. As nothing has been done for two decades, local homeowner Brian Behrend got in contact with a local news publication and let them know about what was happening.
After seeing Behrend’s email, a crew from NBC Los Angeles headed to the area before dawn to see who was hogging all the street parking. It turns out that each morning, workers from Hi Tech Automotive, a repair center for high-end cars, would park customer cars waiting for repairs on the street. The publication says an entire block was soon filled by Ferraris, another was full of Porsches, and various other cars were parked in nearby residential streets.
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Local municipal codes note that it is illegal for car repair centers to park customer vehicles on the streets. NBC Los Angeles also found that parking enforcement officers were not ticketing any of the expensive cars during a period of street cleaning, despite all other vehicles parked on the street being ticketed.
The city has known about Hi Tech Automotive’s parking practices since at least 2002. In fact, it has handed over multiple citations to the shop and threatened fines in 2002, 2006, 2007, 2014, and 2017 but no fines appear to have actually been issued.
Speaking with NBC Los Angeles, Hi Tech Automotive owner Koko Bakchajian stated that he was looking for a local lot to store customer cars while they await repairs.
“I know that it’s illegal,” he said. “I’ve apologized to them [the residents] a million times and we are working on it.”
When asked for comment about the issue, City Attorney Mike Feuer said actions will be taken.
“Had you not reached out to me, I would not personally have been aware of this issue, and I’m glad you did,” Feuer said. “In this case, this has taken way too long [to resolve]. We will ensure that this matter is resolved successfully.”