point emery parking tickets

[nick_80044]

I'm going to try and make it--thanks for the reminder!

[WindMuch]

Bump.

The meeting to discuss parking at Pt. Emery with the Emeryville Public Works folks is this Thursday morning:

Thurs. 5/17/12, 9am, City Hall, 1333 Park Ave, Emeryville, (garden room).

[WindMuch]

It's *interesting* to see how government works (or doesn't)...

Vinnie and I attended the Emeryville Public Works committee meeting this morning at City Hall.

The good news is Maurice Kaufman is a windsurfer and works for the Public Works agency. He's aware of the situation at Pt. Emery in terms of windy days, lack of parking and the fact that it's one of very few places to launch kites in the East Bay.

The entertaining part is to watch the different agencies try to pass ownership and responsibility for that area. Originally, Emeryville said the overflow parking across from the Pt. Emery launch belonged to Berkeley. We pointed them to a map which clearly shows the area to be within the city limits of Emeryville. Quickly that land magically became "Caltrans right of way".

There are apparently long-range "Measure B" funded plans to create a new overpass, pedestrian/bike bridge, cross-walk on the frontage road, etc., but they don't expect that to happen any time soon. If/when those plans begin to take shape, additional parking might be included.

For now, we asked that it be made clear whether parking in the 'overflow' area was legal or not - essentially for some consistency about whether they'd be ticketing for parking there in the future. They pointed us to... drumroll please... another meeting!

The next episode begins at the Public Safety meeting at police headquarters on the 1st Thursday of the month. I'll contact Councilmember Davis and find out the address, time and date.

Stay tuned!

Kirk out

[Aloha]

I have to believe at this point if you were parked completely off the road, actually received a ticket there, and some how tried to appeal it - it would be thrown out considering the who's on first around jurisdiction of the strip

Thank you for representing us so valiantly Kirk & Vinnie we are very grateful for the effort you have put into this

[WindMuch]

Thanks for the thanks. It's getting more than a bit silly...

I agree, it shouldn't be hard to get such a ticket thrown out, but the point is/was to save someone the time/hassle of dealing with such a ticket up front. You know... pay it forward.

Kirk out

[nick_80044]

Kirk was once again an eloquent spokesman for our interests at Emery Point, and was very diplomatic despite the no-real-answers tone of the discussion.

I live close to the Emeryville Police station so I stopped by on my way home to see if I could get more information. I talked to Sgt. Dower (not sure of spelling) and after doing a little digging around he told me the following:

"Police Chief Ken James has followed up on this issue with his staff, including Traffic Sergeant Michael Allen, and they are adopting the official policy that the dirt area north of Point Emery will not be subject to parking tickets. All officers should be/will be informed of this policy, but if for some reason an officer "didn't get the memo," and someone ends up with a ticket, they can go to the police station and fill out an Appeal form.

"However, cars parked in that area must be parked "correctly"--i.e., not on the vegetation, and not over the white line. If any part of the vehicle, or item hanging off the vehicle (i.e., a surfboard), breaks the plane of the white line, it can be perceived to be a hazard to traffic which is a ticketable offense.

"Also, there is no parking there on the Fourth of July."

Now for the bad news: Sgt. Dower agreed that, still, "no one seems willing to claim that area." Despite what Google or Yahoo maps might say, he couldn't give 100% confirmation that the area is in Emeryville, not Berkeley. However, I don't recall anyone saying that Berkeley police officers have patrolled that area so this seems like a remote concern.

The folks at this morning's meeting felt that the area might be in CalTrans' domain. Does anyone know how CalTrans works and if they've shown any interest in that area?

[nick_80044]

Thank you for representing us so valiantly Kirk & Vinnie we are very grateful for the effort you have put into this

You're welcome--glad to do something in return for all the great help I've gotten over the years from this community, including this forum.

[WindMuch]

Vinnie,

You rock - this is brilliant!

I have a friend who is a Berkeley cop - I'll check in with him about it as well.

Can the CHP issue 'parking' tickets? I see them down there as well...

[kief]

Thankx guys!!!
now can we get abcnews to hold the cam there?
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/feature?sect ... id=6095558