After a few pandemic years, some things are getting back to normal in the Bay Area.
In Santa Clara, police will once again start citing people parked on certain city streets without a permit starting Jan. 2.
At the start of the pandemic, police stopped this parking permit enforcement.
"They were trying to limit the contact with the public, so they weren’t enforcing a lot of parking violations," explained Santa Clara District 5 Councilmember Suds Jain.
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He said some of his constituents have come to him with complaints when overflow parking from nearby businesses blocked the street parking spots they use. For example, Jain has heard from residents who've complained of not being able to find parking due to nearby university students who park in neighborhoods.
"I've been telling the residents, 'things will get better when we start enforcing the permit parking,'" said Jain.
He noted that residents who've struggled to find parking in increasingly crowded neighborhoods are eager for the change.
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Jain also emphasized that the city's Residential Parking Permit Program only takes places in areas where residents have asked for it.
"This is initiated by residents, it's not the city imposing this on people," he said.
The city of Santa Clara's website lists all areas affected by this program, which includes more than 50 streets.
The parking permit costs $31.83 according to the city's website. Each qualifying address can get up to two permanent permits, plus two for visitors.
People with cars in the program no longer need a sticker or tag for their cars, the city's website states. The city has moved to a virtual permit program and police can now check whether cars are permitted through a license plate database.
"People have been impacted by the rising cost of living here and people are doubling up," explained Councilmember Kathy Watanabe of Santa Clara District 1. Watanabe said that in the long-term, she believes the city will need to have more discussions about how to meet the growing demand for a finite amount of street parking space.
She said she is glad to hear that parking program enforcement will resume.
"We can just get that confidence and feeling of security in our neighborhoods again, because I think we’ve lost a lot of that during the pandemic," Watanabe said.
As for Jain, in the long-term he is hoping that the city is able to encourage people to use buses, rideshare services, or scooters -- reducing the demand for driving and parking spots. However, he also said he doesn't want Santa Clara to get to the place where people have to drive for ten minutes to find parking.
"Parking is always very contentious as we build denser and denser housing," Jain noted.
