Results tagged “parkingmeter”

Park[ing] Day LA returns for its third year, when on September 18th metered parking spaces all over the city will be taken over by temporary on-the-fly green spaces where anyone is invited to sit down, relax, play, grab a bite, or chill out. With the aim of promoting the value--and in turn, the lack of--safe, accessible, and plentiful green spaces in Los Angeles, the event is an opportunity to break with convention and bring communities together.

At yesterday's city council meeting, a nearly unanimous vote prompted a half million dollar study on whether the city should sell its parking meters and six city parking garages to help fill massive budget gaps. The one councilman who stood up for common sense was the Northwest Valley's Greig Smith. "We're selling property at the bottom of the market. What a stupid idea," he said. "If we were stockbrokers, we'd be in jail with Bernie Madoff for this kind of scheme. This is foolhardy economics." Will JP Morgan Chase own Los Angeles' meters someday soon? The parking lots in question include Hollywood & Highland complex, Pershing Square and the Cinerama Dome.

As part of a city-wide, Mayor-back, and City Council-approved plan that went into effect more than a month ago, parking meter rates in San Pedro got a significant hike--in fact, the rates quadrupled, and the applicable time extended into evening hours. This left not only motorists flustered, but merchants as well, who are already facing a decline in revenue thanks to the economy.

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.

Are the new parking meter rates and time limits affecting you? Let us know in the comments. Reader "db" shares his frustration: "I went down to Hollywood Blvd for lunch last Sunday and had to park blocks away, not because of the ridiculous $2/hour (on a Sunday!) rates, but because of the absurd one hour limit. Please tell me how one is supposed to park, walk to the restaurant, wait to be seated, orders taken and the meal enjoyed, all in one hour! Never mind the possibility of strolling around and perhaps (shock!) spend some money at the local stores. Nope."

The LA Department of Transportation refused to sign an agreement to communicate with neighborhood councils, aka the stakeholders, a few years ago. Now you end up with situations like this in the NoHo Arts District with its 30 or so theatres and no longer term public parking garage nearby. Via the LA Times

A reader writes in about their experience with the newly raised parking meter fees across the city. At a minimum across Los Angeles, meters are prorated at $1 per hour (that means, if you put a quarter in, you get 15 minutes). Here's the LAist tipster's experience with these:

Here's a sign of the times. This bike rack at the Variety/E Channel Meridian Club building on Wilshire normally has three or four bikes on it. This day, bikes (including mine) had to be locked to parking meters because the rack was full.

UCLA Professor Donald Shoup has been saying it for years: "inexpensive parking fosters urban decay, contributes to sprawl and motivates people to drive alone." How? It's that circling around effect, you know, when looking for spaces, avoiding valet. "Low meter rates can further congest city streets as motorists search for cheap parking spaces," the LA Times writes. "Studies in New York indicate that motorists on the hunt represent about 28% of all traffic on Manhattan and 45% in Brooklyn."

Announced and passed last Friday in a Los Angeles City Council session, a hybrid owners perk of parking free was extended to 2011. Then yesterday, they reversed the decision.