How Safe is Your Valet-parked Car?

Ok. I'll tell you a secret: I started this blog to share the intricacies of all that is Los Angeles, especially that of the City government. I read MayorSam for months and then found LA Observed and others that I started to read. I said to myself, there is information that needs to "get out" that remains hidden, even with the emergence of an online media reporting real stories and news of Los Angeles. One of the things that I knew I needed to share was the truth about Valet Parking in the City of Los Angeles. I'm not talking West Hollywood, Pasadena, Culver City, or Santa Monica here - I'm only talking about the second largest municipality in the nation. Here goes...

On any given night in Studio City, Westwood, Los Feliz, and even Downtown, parking is at a premium. This actually could be applied to neighborhoods throughout the City, but specifically, parking for commercial activities is limited. Even sometimes during the day, you can't find a place to park because the establishment you're trying to patronize was either built before codes required enough parking, received a variance so as not to need the required parking to open, is just so busy there's no where to park, or in the case of Daily Grill Downtown or Cafe Bisou in Sherman Oaks: a combination of the three. So what can a business do?

A business can easily do nothing and leave the patron to fight for that last spot 4 blocks away or have them cram into a parking lot that breeds tight fits & door dings. Most often, though, the business will provide a service to the customer, usually for a fee: valet parking. Most often this service is available for restaurants, but it can also be used by an establishment or individual, for that matter. That's what's so disconcerting about valet parking in the City: anyone can operate a valet parking service.

It's true. Anyone can set up an umbrella on the curb and post a sign saying valet parking. In some cases, a company will approach a set of businesses offering the service for free with the patron paying for it when they pull to the curb.

There is no valet parking permit in the City; the only requirement is that the operator have a certificate that the business owner paid the City business tax (it is not a license). There is no requirement of insurance and no guarantee that the person taking your keys has a valid drivers license. These issues alone should make you think twice before giving your keys to the valet, but there's more...

When you pull to a curbside valet, you trustingly give the key to the man in the red vest or the woman in the pink shirt and go into your destination. Do you ever think of where your car goes? Does it go to a secure lot behind the business? Does it go across the street to the parking structure of that bank building? Or, does it go where most go: into a meter on the street or an adjacent neighborhood street?

There is nothing to say your car won't be parked illegally in an alley while you're dining. Well, you see it out the window in the Valet Zone, right? Sorry, but in the City of L.A., there is no such thing a as "valet zone." There are passenger loading zones, commercial loading zones, and 15 or 20 minute parking. If your car sits unoccupied in either of the second two, you're ok. But if it sits empty in a passenger loading zone, your car could get a ticket. Sometimes, the valet company will either pay for it or at least let you know. But sometimes, they just throw it away, and you don't know until you get that official notice in the mail that your ticket is past due. And if you don't get a ticket in that passenger loading zone, who's to say you didn't get one while the car was illegally parked in the alley or a red zone around the corner?

If you're lucky, you'll pull into a parking lot, like that at El Coyote, and they park your car on their lot. Safely. Well, sort of. just askl that to the woman who's car was taken two years ago in Studio City while she dined. She brought her ticket out to the onsight valet, and they indicated they had already given her car to another ticket holder. A man had claimed stolen her car from the valet without damaging it or breaking in; he just presented himself as the owner to the valet. LAPD took the report and reported the car stolen, but the valet was not charged with any crime. You must read the "Conditions" on the back of the ticket or posted at their "valet podium" when you leave your car.

LAPD can't do much about illegal operators, either. There is nothing illegal about you putting an umbrella at the curb in front of a busy restaurant, wearing a red vest, and offering a parking service to someone willing to leave their car with you. And if you don't have that pesky certificate of payment of the City business tax (remember, there is no business license in L.A.), you just don't go back to that location again.

Know who you give your keys to and where they are going to park your car. This may be an issue frequent valet users may want to push before their elected officials. How difficult would it be to require each valet operator to register (no fee, so still fostering a business friendly City) and then also provide a parking plan for cars dropped off at each location they operate? Then, if they are using city streets as their main or overflow parking, they would (maybe) be assessed a fee per space used. They are making money off a public street and preventing regular citizens the option of parking two blocks away and walking. Additionally, collected monies for street-park valet cars could be used to enhance the impacted neighborhood, which often times adjacent to frustrated residential areas. This could be a win for the consumer, for the community, and for the business people of Los Angeles.

I wonder who on the City Council would be a leader enough to stand up and say this would be good for the City?