Oakland will join several other Northern California cities that have begun enforcing street parking fees on Sundays, an effort to boost public revenues and commercial activity in the cash-strapped city.
Starting Jan. 4, Oakland residents who fail to feed the city-run street meters and parking kiosks between noon and 6 p.m. Sunday will receive a warning, officials said. After 30 days, the city will begin issuing tickets.
Free parking on Sundays may seem like a staple of city life, but an increasing number of jurisdictions have ended the tradition — which originates from religious “blue laws” that exempted the public from certain laws on the country’s “day of rest.”
Walnut Creek, Sacramento and certain areas of San Francisco all enforce parking fees for part of the day on Sunday. Street parking remains free on Sundays in San Jose, though the parking garages there begin charging after 90 minutes.
In Oakland, the move comes as city officials strive to remedy a longstanding budget deficit that has plagued public spending. The city’s revenues from parking citations grew substantially last year, with officials noting a ramp-up in citywide enforcement.
“This change will improve parking availability for everyone and provide better access to the spaces that make Oakland great,” Josh Rowan, the city’s transportation director, said in a news release.
Rowan also said the policy change will promote customer turnover at Oakland’s businesses – disincentivizing people from leaving their cars parked in a single space all day.
Public transit advocates have often pushed cities to enforce parking fees, believing the added costs will lead more people to walk, cycle or take the bus instead of using their cars.
A pilot program that enforced parking fees at the city’s Lake Merritt raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue after it was introduced in 2022.
But the very presence of meters at the lake drew backlash from residents who pointed to it as a sign of Oakland’s increasing gentrification.
The costs of fees and citations bear more heavily on lower-income residents, who advocates say are more likely to be driving into the city from elsewhere in the East Bay — a symptom of displacement from rising housing costs.
“The good news is we can put the money back toward our vendors,” Joe DeVries, a deputy city administrator, said in a 2023 interview. “The revenue will help offer a better experience for people visiting Oakland.”
Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.