Parking enforcement in parks: is there any?

[kolya]

One may find this question strange but does it really working? Do people get fined when parking on the lawn of the parks?

Seems not.
For about a week the parking lots on Lakeshore bulevard at Windemere ave and Lakeshore bulevard and Ellis ave are closed and used as garbage dump sites.
And lots of cars are parked around, directly on the grass. There are like 20 cars or even more. Some of them a strikers', some probably not because number of strikers here is well below 20.
So I called parking enforcement unit, many times. First couple of times I just left location, my name and address. But when the number of cars illegally parked there I became curious. I asked to speak to police supervisor about this issue. Basically, what I was told is that they cannot fine anybody on the lawn because this is city property, which is like private property and requires consent to fine a vehicle from property owner. I've heard various stories from different supervisors since then, but all concluded that they won't do anything. One of the officers told me today that they are waiting for some letter form Toronto Park and Recreations authorizing them to fine in this particular park. But he refused to give me name to whom this letter was addressed. And hi didn't provide me with information whether other park have letter allowing to fine and tow there. And he also have given me some (I think) fake bylaw number which as he says forces them to wait for city permission.
I, from my side looked to Toronto Municipal code and found that:
1) paragraph 915-2 prohibits parking without consent on any property (including private and municipal).
2) paragraphs 915-3,4 grant permission to the police to remove and fine vehicles parked without such consent.
3) paragraph 608-27 lists places where parking is allowed in parks. And it includes only specifically marked places.
So, from my perspective city have given all permissions and consents to the police to fine those car owners. Do I miss something or police officers just do not tell me the truth (or tell me untruth)?

At the mean time grass is being destroyed by cars there and instead of a lawn there soon will be just dust. And this lawn was created and maintained for taxpayers money.

Do not known what to think. If this is reality that anybody can park on the lawns in the parks for free this is ridiculous. If this is only for strikers and city employees this makes them above the law which is frightening.

And do not know what to do, actually.

 

[slowtyper]

Once this strike ends, how about you and I leave our cars on some grass parks and just see how fast we get ticketed/towed.

 

[kolya]

Once this strike ends, how about you and I leave our cars on some grass parks and just see how fast we get ticketed/towed.

There is actually no need to wait for the end of the strike: there are plenty of parks not affected by it. But the tone of the parking enforcement officers actually says that they won't do anything there either.
I won't but my car under attack but I know the place where cars get parked on the grass of the park and it's far from strikers. I'll make a call and wait for police to come.
There is actually one more problem about this which I didn't mention previously: it takes huge amount of time for police to come after this call. I have tried to wait twice, waited for more than an hour and nobody showed up there.

 

[oldpackard]

parking enforcement

if you can the Police for parking enforcement to attend a parking problem, and they don't show up, call again and lodge a complaint. But in their defence, they city put most of their officers in the down town core. And only a few in the outter areas, like Etobicoke. The city strike doesn't effect parking enforcement, they can not go on strike.

 

[kolya]

if you can the Police for parking enforcement to attend a parking problem, and they don't show up, call again and lodge a complaint. But in their defence, they city put most of their officers in the down town core. And only a few in the outter areas, like Etobicoke. The city strike doesn't effect parking enforcement, they can not go on strike.

It has been a long time since the strike now and I even moved out from Toronto .

It was quite an adventure dealing with this problem.
Police usually didn't show up after my calls. If I really insisted they showed up but did nothing. The reason: parks are 'private' property and highway act doesn't apply to them.

I actually found retired Toronto parking enforcement officer on the internet and contacted him. He told me that the fines issued on park property (municipal property) without property owner signature do not stand in court. It sounds like nonsense to me: who is 'the owner' of the park land and have the authority to sign such ticket and what documents (laws, etc) regulate this? Anyway, this seems like official position of parking authority and unlikely will change. Personally I believe that police workers feel some kind of support to strikers (both have unions) and won't go against them.
The good thing is that retired parking enforcement officer gave me contact of some quite high rank current enforcement officer. We've exchanged emails and he did something. Basically strikers were convinced by some people from police to move their cars away from grass. On their good will only. Without repaying damage made to park land -- this damage will be payed by taxpayers. And this was done in one particular place, not in every place all over the city - I personally know several more where strikers were parking cars on the lawn but seeing police attitude to the issue I wasn't able to find time and will to do anything.

And after the strike air show and exhibition came. And several parks along the lake shoe were converted into parking lots. Just on the lawn, without any protection. E.g. Marilyn Bell Park. Even Google Maps pictured this awful scene: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=43.630927,-79.427451&spn=0.005684,0.009645&t=h&z=17. I used to ride a bike along this park before the event and was always wandering why the lawn looks so bad - now I know why. And now I wander who gets money for this usage and destruction of supposedly public property.