Hi everyone!! My name is Rachel-- I'm asking for help getting my car, Yani, legally back on the road!

I purchased Yani from a friend of mine in August 2024.

Now, hold that thought…

Some context:

I live on a street in uptown Oakland that requires you to move your car from one side of the street to the other for the hours of 12am-3am every single day except Sunday. Sometimes, this isn’t super possible because parking on the street is very limited and shared by a number of neighbors. All other parking around me is either metered or limited to 2 hours, which presents a big challenge for those of us who reside in this business/commercial district, especially given that at any moment, there might be several abandoned/"permanently" parked vehicles on my block that never move and take up what precious limited parking spaces there are for long periods of time. My street is not zoned/doesn’t qualify for residential parking permits. Furthermore, parking enforcement officers don’t put citations on your vehicle; they click your license plate and the citation gets mailed to the address on file.

Going back to last August,

I purchased my car, did everything correctly to register it, but the guy who did my smog never sent my certification to the DMV, so my registration application got delayed for 6 months. For those 6 months, the car was not officially registered to me, so I wasn't being notified at all that my car was accruing dozens of parking tickets.

When the paperwork finally went through in February 2025, I started receiving mail for the 6 months of parking tickets & late fees I had accrued, again with ZERO notice. At that time, the fines came out to over $3000.

I didn’t qualify for a low-income payment plan at the time, the window to appeal most of those citations had already passed, and the requirement to apply for the standard payment plan is that you have 50% of the total fines owed to put down at the start. I’ve never ever had $1500+ in disposable income at one time that I would be able to give to the parking department. On top of that, Oakland doesn't have a community service exchange program, where you can work off your parking tickets, like SF does.

I currently have 35 open citations, the fines and fees for which have all grown, now equaling about $7000, and my vehicle’s registration is on hold for the amount of $4700, which greatly limits my ability to work and reduces my earning capacity and the likelihood I'll be able to pay off these fines. I’m terrified they’re going to impound my car if they catch me making a grocery run, let alone driving over the bridge to the city for a gig or making any trips out of town. The toll this situation is taking on my mental health and financial stability is huge.

I’ve called traffic lawyers who won’t help me because these aren’t moving violations. I’ve called public defenders and civil litigators who won’t help me because it’s not a criminal or interpersonal case. I called my state senator who can’t help because the case has legal implications. I’ve reached out to my city council member who doesn’t have enough sway with the parking department to be able to do much but give me advice.

At this point, I have two courses of action to take:

1) Appeal to Alameda Superior Court, which has the possibility of making some difference but will likely take a lot of time and energy.

~and~

2) Figure out how to pay the fines while working part-time, and currently on unemployment & food stamps.

I'm also afraid I might lose access to some unemployment benefits if I can't reliably use my car to get to interviews/work shifts.

SO,

I'm asking for help!!

If I can at least renew my car registration, I would feel so much more empowered to deal with the rest of the fines through an appeals process to the court. However, with my ability to work being impaired by not having a vehicle, that feels like a really urgent need and I would love to be able to just do that!!

If you are able to donate anything towards the total cost of $4700 the DMV is asking in order to renew my registration, Yani and I would be so deeply grateful!