Reaction was mixed on Main Street as news hit that a parking ticket in Los Altos went from $22 to $30 last Thursday.
"Oh my God!" said Linda Bartel, who works at the Los Altos Village Association in downtown Los Altos. "We're always looking to see when (the officer) is coming to mark the cars."
Los Altos resident Victoria Slichter said she has never gotten a parking ticket in Los Altos but said parking is "a real problem around here. I do my shopping before 11 a.m. or after 2 p.m. because (between those times) there's no place to park.
"People are fighting over parking places. We need to do something," she said as she climbed into her car, which was parked on Main Street about 10:30 a.m. on June 30.
The price of a parking ticket has not increased for "at least 8 years," according to a June 22 resolution passed by the Los Altos City Council that raised the rate.
The city staff determined that rates in "neighboring jurisdictions" are "substantially higher" than those in Los Altos, said Police Chief Lucy Carlton in a staff report to the council.
Tickets in Sunnyvale are $32 and $30 in Cupertino and Saratoga, Carlton said. At $30 for Los Altos, "We're pretty much where we need to be. There is not 100 percent cost recovery."
A parking ticket in Mountain View costs $17, said Jim Bennet, police department spokesman. The price has not gone up in three years, he said.
In Palo Alto, a parking ticket cost $23 until last Thursday when it went up to $24, said Dave Dudley, supervisor of police services for Palo Alto.
"A lot of agencies are $30 or more," Dudley said. "Usually when there's a parking crunch, when spaces are at a shortage, the higher ticket prices are a way to discourage use of the stalls."
Parking tickets on the Stanford campus are $25, students said.
Merchants in downtown Los Altos like the increase.
"Make it $100," said Nick Testa, owner of the Italian Deli on Main Street. "People who stay a long time affect business downtown."
Wanda Whittaker, a hairdresser on Main Street, called the hike "a good deterrent. For $30, I'm definitely going to park where I'm supposed to." Whittaker has worked downtown for more than 30 years and has not gotten a parking ticket.
City Attorney Bob Booth said, "You have to make it high enough so people are sensitive to time limits, and there are turnovers. In Los Altos, there's a terrible noontime crunch," he said.