Many students who have parked on Nordhoff Street between Darby and Etiwanda Avenue have found that the vagueness of the parking signs plays a part in why they were ticketed.

The street across from the university has three signs posted, one at the beginning of the block that reads, “No Stopping from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. as well as from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.” Another sign that is posted halfway into the block reads, “No Parking from 10 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Fridays.”

For the majority of students who cannot afford paying for parking at CSUN, they have to find ways of parking in the public parking spots available around school.

Christina Villalobos, special assistant to CSUN’s chief of police, responded to the reaction of students and said, “If it is on Nordhoff it is not our responsibility, Nordhoff is city property.”

“It is really simple, if they do not want to get a ticket then avoid a parking mistake,” said Villalobos. She stressed that those signs are put up that way for traffic flow and street maintenance and believes the signs are clear to understand.

A Los Angeles Parking Violation Bureau official, who wished to remain anonymous for this article, explained that there is nothing they can do. The reason why those signs are placed that way are is because one of the signs is for the general traffic to maintain the three lanes needed for easy traffic flow, while the other sign that does not permit parking of Fridays is there for street cleaning to maintain a clean street.

He agreed they do get complaints about the area, but cannot do anything about it. He suggested students should try to approach the street cleaning crew for an alternative.

CSUN’s own parking officers also give parking tickets, but only on school property. The Department of Public Safety does receive a lot of complaints about parking tickets given within the school and outside, but they cannot do anything for tickets stemming from city property.

Villalobos said that in fall of 2007, there were 10,825 citations given on campus.

Jenny-Marie Carson, a music performance major, will be graduating this year and has been parking on the street for the past two years after finding out that paying for the parking permit at CSUN did not guarantee her a spot. She said it has always been difficult to find parking on campus.

Carson regularly parks in this parking section on Nordhoff and has memorized the signs the hard way.

“I got towed about a year ago because of the 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. sign, it is an anti-gridlock zone. It was (a) terrible discerning thing,” she said.

“I had to pay $200 to get my car out. I did not know where my car was or who to call, I ended up calling the non-emergency police hotline,” said Carson.

Carson suggests other students like herself to be productive and be aware of where they park, “You are still accountable even if you do not know the law, try to read all the signs, memorize the days where you can park.”