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Whose Street is This Anyway? |
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Perspective
By Ken Draper
There are about 100 preferential parking districts in LA. Until now, this exclusionary permit program has been considered an entitlement of residents.
As a way of increasing revenue and of providing at least some relief
for LA’s traffic and parking crisis, the City is kicking around the
idea of letting businesses into the parking permit club.
Needless to say, the fiefdom protectors are up in arms. The nay-Sayers have come out of the neighborhood woodwork. And, life as we know it will be forever altered. If you don’t believe it, read our own Charles Tarlow’s missive in this CityWatch.
The bothersome part for me about the screech coming from the opponents to this idea that businesses might be allowed into the parking permit program is the attitude. Their are-you-kidding-me pitch always comes with a righteous overtone that suggests there is no other side to this issue, that the reasons for this idea being wrong are blatantly obvious, that LA’s poor residents are once again being put upon and that the responsibility for helping to resolve the parking crisis belongs to everyone else but them.
Here’s some breaking news: there are a number of clear-thinking level-headed residents and homeowners in our city who believe that this is not a black and white issue and that the time is past due for rethinking and updating the City’s permit parking system.
Permit parking began in LA in 1979. Much has changed over those 29 years. The reasons and needs for some of the permit districts no longer exist.
I live in one of the oldest permit parking districts in the city. A permit is required for street parking between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. When the neighborhood petitioned for a district almost 30 years ago, those restrictions may have applied. Today, most of the residents on this street are at work between 8 and 6 and the curbsides sit empty. After work, when my neighbors return, a spot at that same curbside is at a premium because parking is open to anyone. Where’s the logic … or fairness … in that?
This district needs to be updated. And, it’s not an isolated example.
In some cases, old business districts have disappeared and new corridors have sprung up in totally different locations in the permit zone. The district needs to be reconfigured to meet new needs and concerns.
Most of the permit parking districts are in the older parts of the city where the population has grown, the buildings are older and less accommodating. Years ago, apartments could be built without parking. Old residential garages will no longer accommodate today’s cars. More people in the family drive, thus there are more cars to park. The business corridors have become more dense. Traffic clogs our streets. We have a parking crisis. Everywhere. Not just in front of our residences. We all had a hand in getting here and we all have a responsibility to help find a livable solution. Simply demanding that the city build more parking structures is not that solution.
Then there are the philosophical questions that the whole permit parking district concept flushes to the surface. My stakeholder-at-street-level friend, Keith Bright, says many of the newer districts were formed to be exclusionary. Designed to create a kind of gated community without the barriers and the security guards.
“At the outset,” he says, “we have to ask: whose street is this anyway?” Our property lines end at the curb. We all pay taxes. The streets belong to all of us. What gives me the right to tell you you can’t use your taxes-paid-for street?
And then, what about that part of the Muni code that says residences have to have a driveway and two garages? Why don’t we all park some of our multiple cars in our driveways and make room for some of the visitors to the neighborhood? Or, some of the struggling renters in those old apartments with zero parking who have to park eight blocks from home because surrounding streets are parking permit only?
And, why shouldn’t we make some of the residential parking … wasted anyway during some hours of the day … available to nearby businesses?
This is, after all, all of our problem. And, we all will be needed to help resolve it. Just saying ‘no’ is hardly ever a solution. _
CityWatch
Vol 6 Issue 44
Published: May 30, 2008
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