Palmdale, Calif., Cites Motorists for Good Parking

'Tis the season to be jolly in Palmdale Calif., where parking enforcement officers have been giving out good-parking tickets, spreading the holiday cheer and hoping to promote good parking habits among the city's motorists.

"The holiday rush brings on that other side of us and we just park without thinking of others," Dulce Gomez, the Palmdale parking-enforcement supervisor, said.

"When we were deciding about this initiative, we wanted to put through a plan for the community that is positive for both our staff and public to help maximize the parking spaces during the busiest shopping time of the year," she added.

This positive reinforcement plan was first launched last December. "It was very well received by the community and we decided to repeat it this year and hopefully make it an annual initiative," Gomez said.

Parking enforcement officers started giving out the good-parking tickets Dec. 10 and will continue to do so until Dec. 24.

"People are asking us what they should do to get a good ticket," Gomez said. "Well, they should just simply show good civics. We, for example, reward people for not parking in the fire lane or who don't use up two parking spaces."

The good citations are handed out in person throughout the city of Palmdale to courteous or law-abiding drivers. They come with gift cards from Yard House restaurants or a gift basket from The Body Shop in Antelope Valley Mall.

"All the recipients will also be entered into a drawing to win one of five annual parking passes in several areas in Santa Monica valued at $450," Gomez said.

Fifty parking tickets were issued last year. "We only gave out one [ticket] this year, but I'm sure we'll give out more by the end of the week," Gomez said.

The City of Palmdale hopes to expand the project. "We might try to reach out to the Sheriff's Department here to propose issuing good citations for motorists abiding by speed limits and traffic laws," she said.