Moving parked cars off the sidewalks isn’t helping anyone

About one year ago, county officials began to enforce a previously widely disregarded law forbidding parked vehicles from obstructing any part of a sidewalk. Proponents of the law argue that it is for pedestrian safety, but that’s absolute bullshit.

First of all, no one in IV actually walks on the sidewalk. A lot of streets don’t even have sidewalks. Walking in the street is a (sometimes quite annoying) thing that people in IV do.

Many houses, especially in more crowded areas such as the 6500 and 6600 blocks of Del Playa, lost several parking spots due to the new law. Owners of these vehicles now have to park on the street, making street parking even more difficult to find. Many people have to park several blocks away from their house and walk home alone.

It’s generally accepted that walking alone in IV isn’t the safest thing in the world to do. Assaults and robberies on pedestrians are reported rather often, but injuries caused by walking around a parked car are literally unheard of.

All this new law has accomplished is an even worse street parking situation in Isla Vista. Parked cars aren’t a danger to pedestrians; having to walk home alone from several blocks away is statistically more risky.

Let people park at their damn houses.