A word to the wise: Watch where you park
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Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Feb. 12. I’m Carol Cormaci, bringing you this week’s TimesOC newsletter with a look at some of the latest local news and events.
Just before we flipped our calendars to 2025, media reports advised California motorists of a freshly minted law that requires us (as of Jan. 1) to leave at least 20 feet, or one large car length between a marked or unmarked crosswalk and our vehicle when parking at a curb, whether or not said curb has been painted red.
The “daylighting law” was enacted to save lives, as the distance now required to be left free of vehicles allows drivers to better see vulnerable pedestrians or bicyclists at the intersection ahead.
What I didn’t realize when I read those reports was that the law, AB 413, was already a full year old. Sacramento lawmakers passed it in 2023 and it went into effect in 2024.
As I understand it now, beginning that Jan. 1, city police departments were supposed to start educating but not citing drivers who didn’t allow that much space from a street corner when parking. The public was, in effect, given a yearlong grace period to absorb the details of the law before paying any consequences for breaking it.
Apparently I was not alone in thinking the law only went into effect this year. I learned from my colleague Sara Cardine that the Orange County city she covers for the Daily Pilot appears to have been caught unaware as well.
For her story, “Costa Mesa motorists left in the dark about state’s new ‘daylighting’ law,” Cardine heard from the man who wrote the law’s language, Marc Vukcevich, that Costa Mesa is not the only city that missed the 12-month opportunity to educate its residents before writing tickets for breaking it. The Costa Mesa resident drafted the language for the bill introduced by Assemblyman Alex Lee (D-San Jose) in February 2023 that was signed into law that October.
According to the article, Vukcevich, a member of Costa Mesa Alliance for Better Streets (CMABS), said he spoke to the city’s public works director a year ago asking officials to educate citizens on the new law.
“Have we been giving warnings at all the past year? Does Public Works have a plan to implement this with red curbs, with bollards, with bike racks or other things we can do?” he asked at the time.
Apparently the answer was no. This January the Costa Mesa Police Department, in compliance with the law, began writing tickets. How many of those motorists even knew the law was on the books we couldn’t know, but when city officials realized earlier this month that the period during which they were supposed to have been educating drivers had passed without such warnings, they decided those tickets would be dismissed. An announcement to that effect went out on social media posts last week that no one else will be cited for parking within 20 feet of an intersection until March 1.
According to Cardine’s story, Costa Mesa City Manager Lori Ann Farrell Harrison said public works and police officials were working together to ensure ticketing does not precede education.
“We strongly believe in education before we implement new programs,” she said. “It’s important for everyone to be informed of the new rules.”
MORE NEWS
• As news of deportations from the U.S. of immigrants without proper documentation has grabbed increasingly heated attention over the past few weeks under the Trump 2.0 administration, at least a few Orange County communities have reacted. Santa Ana, which 2016 declared itself a “sanctuary city,” discussed reconvening a Sanctuary Policy Advisory Group within a month, TimesOC reporter Gabriel San Román learned. Readers may recall that Huntington Beach recently filed suit against California over its sanctuary state law. San Román reported that the San Clemente City Council last week rebuffed a request by Mayor Steve Knoblock to join the Huntington Beach suit. “We don’t want to be Huntington Beach,” said San Clemente Councilman Mark Enmeier to applause during the meeting. “We … don’t want to get involved in national politics.”
• People keeping an eye on Huntington Beach City Hall over the past several years couldn’t help but notice that the city attorney, Michael Gates, has led Surf City’s charge against the state over a host of progressive-leaning mandates (including the sanctuary state law mentioned above). This week, Gates announced he’ll be moving to a bigger pond, as he has accepted a position as a deputy assistant attorney general in the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
• Concerned about more stringent regulations pondered by the California Fish and Game Commission that would decrease the number of barred sand bass that could be targeted by fishermen, the Dana Point City Council sent a letter to the commission, according to this TimesOC story. The city pushed commissioners to keep lines of communication open with the local stakeholders while setting the regulations, including anglers who fish from Dana Point’s “piers, breakwaters, kayaks, small boats, and commercial passenger boats.”
• The Orange County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved settlement offers from Southern California Edison for $18.125 million to pay for county damages from the October 2020 Silverado and May 2022 Coastal fires, City News Service reported.
PUBLIC SAFETY & CRIME
• A former United States Postal Service supervisor who worked at a Costa Mesa post office has admitted to being a serial mail thief, pilfering more than $300,000 worth of checks, gold and collectible currency while on the job, authorities said. The woman, Joivian Tjuana Hayes, is scheduled for a sentencing hearing on May 23.
• A 69-year-old Anaheim caregiver is accused of raping a 93-year-old woman who is nonverbal, bedridden and suffers from dementia, on Jan. 6, while he was supposed to be caring for her.
• A wrong-way driver from La Habra identified as 29-year-old Joshua Kevin Soto succumbed in a hospital to injuries he sustained after crashing head-on into another vehicle at around 1:35 a.m. Monday on Jamboree Road in Irvine, City News Service reported. The other driver was not injured, according to police.
SPORTS
• Veteran MBA pitcher Kenley Jansen yesterday was closer to agreeing to a “one-year, $10-million contract with the Angels pending a physical, according to a person familiar with the deal but not authorized to speak publicly about it,” L.A. Times sportswriter Mike DiGiovanna reported.
• Former National Football League player Matthew Hatchette has been hired as head football coach at Huntington Beach High School, pending school board approval, it was announced last week. Hatchette, a receiver during his career, played in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings, New York Jets and Jacksonville Jaguars before retiring following the 2003 season.
• The Pacifica Christian High School-Orange County boys’ soccer team was celebrating its first-ever league title last week with a 3-1 victory over Santa Ana’s Magnolia Science Academy.
LIFE & LEISURE
• The skills of George Bandar, owner and sole craftsman of Master Jewelers Newport, were sought out by a couple who lost their home in the Palisades fire last month but managed to pull from the ashes two heirloom rings and a bracelet that were heavily damaged and blackened during the catastrophe. Bandar told the Daily Pilot he considers the repair work for the couple a labor of love and he’s only charging them the cost of materials. “I work on it like it’s my own,” Bandar said in the interview. “My weak point is when I hear it has sentimental value. When I hear that, I take it like it comes from my grandma to me.” The results of those repairs:
• Valentine’s Day is this Friday. To help TimesOC readers decide where they might like to dine out for the occasion, staff writer Sarah Mosqueda offers the inside scoop on six romantic options. Those looking to treat the whole family to a special meal should take a look at the three Little Saigon restaurants that food writer Edwin Goei tested out for his article on communal feasting.
CALENDAR THIS
• Maverick Theater on Walnut Avenue in Fullerton opened its stage production of the Academy Award-winning 1998 romantic-comedy “Shakespeare in Love” on Friday; it will run through Sunday, March 16. Samantha Green and Justyn Franco Gonzalez lead the 21-member cast as Viola de Lesseps and Will Shakespeare, respectively. Some performances are sold out, but others nights are still available. Tickets range from $21.50 to $39.50.
• “Tick Tick ... Boom!” by Jonathan Larsen will be staged Feb. 21 at Chance Theater in the Bette Aitken Theater Arts Center, 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim. Proceeds will benefit Orange County performing arts students through a variety of programs. Reception, 7 p.m., curtains up, 8 p.m. Tickets, priced at $55, are available online.
• The nonprofit Festival Singers of Orange County will present “Melodies from Near and Far” on Sunday, March 2, at 3 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church of the Master, 26051 Marguerite Pkwy., Mission Viejo. The program will include songs from different cultures around the globe. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased in advance here or at the door.
Until next Wednesday,
Carol
KEEP IN TOUCH
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