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Now that parking meters are enforced beyond 6 p.m. with a two-hour limit in the NoHo Arts Distrct, the whole experience of going out to dinner and seeing a theatre show doesn't really work unless you want to keep moving your car to a new space.
Tom LaBonge, who represents the area, spoke to FOX News last night. He voted to increase rates and hours and is now trying to find a solution after community unrest. When asked if he felt "dooped" by the Department of Transportation by submitting the out-of-touch proposal, instead of blaming them, he blamed himself for not thinking through the consequences. "I feel I should have done a better job."
The city council had tunnel vision last summer when they voted on the issue. It's a recession, after all, and well, the city coffers are in need of hundreds of millions of dollars. You can't call this unintended consequences, just the acceptance of poor planning. It's very much the opposite of what Gail Goldberg, the city's planning department director, has as a mantra--"demand real planning."
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Most people regret stupid decisions after the fact. The test is avoiding the stupid decision in the first place.
Yup. You nailed it.
i remember reading about all the insane changes they were going to make in the parking fees last summer and thought that's just going to be a disaster, especially the extending of hours past 6pm.
I wish there was a quick visual to sum up this massive incompetence to send to FailBlog, cause this is an epic failure in governance. Good for LaBonge for at least accepting some responsibility.
oh yeah and kudos to LAIST for covering this ongoingly, it's important
No one saw this coming? Really?
You know, I'm all for raising the prices and extending the hours, we're a big city and I'm with Donald Shoup on all of this. What I'm not for is keeping time limits in places where it is ridiculous to do so for the type of area such as NoHo Arts District.
While I didn't work on this project, I never even caught it c'ause it was not part of the plan as publicized. I think they just defaulted to 2 hours cause that's how it was before 6 p.m. when it made sense. The scenarios were just not played out.
I guess politicians don't have to park at meters like their constituents do.
"I feel I should have done a better job."
Tom LaBonge
Think those words as you walk back to your car and find a ticket!
"Good for LaBonge for at least accepting some responsibility"
He should pay for all the tickets that are issued if he really wants accept some responsibility.
It's "duped," not "dooped." And if the quote was taken from another print publication where they misspelled it as "dooped," y'all need a "[sic]".
Just sayin'.
I was going to ask "Was he high?!?" but I saw his last name and realized what a lame, obvious joke that would be. So I won't tell it.
The two hour time limits by the curb are not necessarily the problem; it's the scarcity of off-street parking in the area, where by visitors can park their cars at reasonable cost for longer than two hours. Oftentimes, it is cheaper to park at the curb than in a garage, which induces a) cruising for parking and b) if you think about it doesn't make sense. What do you mean? Well, if you're going to run a quick errand at a business along the curb, then you may be willing to pay 25 cents for 15 minutes for a curb spot. Maybe you want to eat dinner - fine, pay $2 to park by the curb for two hours. Such pricing would create turnaround on the spots and make it possible for the spaces to serve more people (and the businesses along the street may profit as well.)
But Shoup would argue that those attending the theater or a club for several hours should be parking in an off-street spot. Herein lies the problem. From what I understand, off-street spots are scarce. There are a few private garages in the area (one by the Academy of Arts and Sciences, another at the southwest corner of Magnolia and Lankershim) but perhaps they are either really expensive or not open late enough to serve theatergoers. (Someone needs to investigate that).
Note: The Metro lot at the NoHo station is under capacity at night, but I don't know if Metro has the interest or the capacity to manage that lot for a fee at night.