Joey Morales’ Ford SUV stopped along a quiet residential street in South L.A., its headlights shining on what would be a perfect parking spot if not for the three orange cones blocking it.
Cones in this part of town carry weight — they’re used not just by public works and construction crews but by locals as de facto gatekeepers blocking vehicles from crossing. With a friend filming him for his growing TikTok following as the “Cone King,” Morales, 31, exited his vehicle in a yellow reflective vest, grabbed the cones and tossed them into his SUV.
His next step would be giving the cones away to construction crews, or if labeled as L.A. property, returning them to the city.
In Los Angeles, the battle for public parking spaces has been likened to a blood sport. Be it cones, trash cans, fake “No Parking” signs or other items, Angelenos have for decades made the act of parking on a public street a virtual survival of the fittest and best prepared in a city of 3.8 million.
But saving a parking spot by obstructing the street, without a valid permit, is against the city’s municipal code.
In the last fiscal year, StreetsLA, a division of the city’s Public Works Department, responded to more than 4,000 requests to remove obstructions in public rights-of-way, which include street parking spaces, said StreetsLA spokesperson Dan Halden.
Those who violate the law are subject to administrative fines beginning at $50, but that’s about it, according to the city. Los Angeles police do not respond to parking disputes over things such as cones unless there’s a “fight breaking out or some other criminal event,” the department said.
Parking disputes turning violent in Los Angeles and beyond, unfortunately, are not unheard of.
Two years ago, an entire block in Echo Park confronted a yoga studio, Modo Yoga, whose participants were blocking driveways and hitting residents’ cars as they occupied every available parking spot on the street.
In 2006 in Arleta, a man shot and killed a neighbor who had parked in front of his home.
But it’s not that serious everywhere, such as in San Bruno, Calif., where police recently posted a friendly reminder to residents that blocking public parking spots is prohibited after someone there started using orange cones too.
The San Bruno Police Department — whose coverage area is a small suburb south of San Francisco — reminded its residents via Facebook that cones “belong at construction sites, and garbage cans belong at the curb on trash day — not in the middle of the street guarding your favorite space.”
Police Sgt. Scott Smithmatungol, who created the post for the department, said he understands parking is becoming more difficult with new developments in the San Bruno area and a slew of people who try to leave their cars parked long-term near San Francisco International Airport, directly west of the community.
Even though Smithmatungol acknowledged the street parking challenges, he said the Police Department continues to have conversations with the community to educate them that the roadway doesn’t belong to any individual household or resident.
“It’s not neighborly to put out cones and take parking away,” Smithmatungol said. “Everyone needs to be able to coexist.”
But coexisting is hard when there isn’t enough space on the street for everyone’s vehicle — just ask residents in Willowbrook.
Some families in this unincorporated slice of L.A. County have used cones or garbage cans for decades, inspiring other neighbors to follow suit, said John Davis, president of Avalon Gardens Community Assn.
Parking challenges aren’t a recent problem but were exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, Davis said, when family members moved in together after people lost their jobs or relatives became sick and needed caregivers, in many cases adding another car to the household.
“A lot of people couldn’t afford rent so they had to move in with relatives and that crushed the little bit of parking that was available,” he said.
But even before the pandemic, the number of cars per household had been increasing with time, statistics show.
The percentage of homes with three vehicles jumped from 2.5% in 1960 to almost 22% as of 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. In the same time period, the number of homes without a vehicle dropped from 21.5% to 8.4%.
During community meetings, Davis said, residents have discussed getting more people to use public transportation or instituting parking permit requirements, but those suggestions were met with more questions: What if public transportation doesn’t work with my family’s schedule? Is enough of the community in favor of parking permits? Why can’t parking enforcement take care of the rule breakers?
Davis pointed to new building developments not adding enough parking and the rise of accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, as partly to blame for the issues. A 2024 Times analysis showed L.A. County permitted more ADUs per capita than any other county in the state.
Local leaders should go into these communities to learn about their concerns before approving new developments, he said.
Ellen Schwartz, manager of the UCLA Center for Parking Policy, said for years, new projects were required to have a specific number of off-street parking spots for residents, setting a general expectation that parking, particularly free parking, would be available. Some neighborhoods are more dense and have a more crowded street parking situation than others because they were developed before minimum parking requirements, she said.
In Schwartz’s view, the solution to this public parking pressure is to charge for it. Some neighborhoods, such as parts of Hollywood, require permits to park on local streets.
“Long-term repeated use of a space can foster that sense of ownership, and change is jarring, especially for anyone who moved to a certain neighborhood or added an extra household car with the expectation that street parking would always be free,” she said.
For those who don’t want to pay monthly for a reserved spot in a garage, or don’t have enough room in their driveway or garage for another vehicle, the old-school methods are still the preferred option.
They’re also what motivated Morales to create his TikTok account.
Saving a spot at all costs wasn’t a new concept for the father of two, who said he has seen cones and trash cans block spots throughout his neighborhood. But the act became unsavory toward the end of 2022, when his neighbor across the street started to block off a spot with orange cones.
As a small act of rebellion, Morales decided to move them.
“I started moving them to park my car there because it was the only spot available” when he’d return home from work, he said.
One afternoon on a whim, when the parking situation was especially dire, Morales filmed himself driving onto his packed street and stopping in front of the only available spot — blocked with cones. He got out and moved them, pulled into the space and then posted the video on TikTok.
The feedback was positive with people applauding him for reclaiming the spot.
Days later, he said, “just for giggles,” Morales posted a video telling his viewers to send him a message with the address of cones that were obstructing public street parking. Since then, Morales has received hundreds of comments and tips across the city and county. His account currently has 21,000 followers.
On a recent weeknight, Morales walked down 61st and 62nd streets between Main Street and Broadway in South Los Angeles. By 7 p.m., the street was lined with parked cars. Next to some of them on the grass and behind front yard gates sat orange delineators and cones, one labeled “LADOT.”
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