Last month Brentwood News published an article about a recent study of parking issues along San Vicente. Mott Smith of Civic Enterprise Solutions, which conducted the study, outlined his preliminary conclusions at a meeting of the Brentwood Community Council. The following letter is from Mark Geller, who has a store near San Vicente and Barrington.
Mott:
Thank you for trying to help with the San Vicente parking. This is never an easy task, no matter where in the City.
As a merchant on San Vicente near Barrington, for three years plus, I would like to offer my observations on the San Vicente parking:
1. I have had stores all over the city, on Robertson, in Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades and Malibu. Never, I mean never, have I seen so many handicap permits as are on San Vicente from day to day…all day. This does not exist in these numbers anywhere I have ever had a store, or lived. I have walked the block from East of Barrington to Bundy and the proliferation of handicap is sad. Many are employees, many are ambulatory fakes, or kids using the parent’s or grandparent’s placards. On occasion, I have seen every spot, with the exception of one or two in a stretch of 20-25 cars, taken up by people with placards frequenting hair salons and restaurants. I have yet to see a wheelchair or even a cane. I would venture a bet that 80-90 percent are just pure fakes. More enforcement of this is needed. They can park anywhere, even in 15 minute zones, as long as they like.
2. Extending the meters to two hours will encourage people to avoid valets at restaurants or the lots as they will be able to feed the meters longer. It will not help alleviate, but will just add to the stagnation. The one hour actually forces people to use lots knowing they can’t get it all in an hour (eat/hair, etc.), without rushing to return to the car to feed the meter. Just the embarrassment of having to run to your car in the middle of eating is enough for some to cave in and use the valets. This recommendation (longer parking) is counterintuitive to the problems and has never worked anywhere in the city where it has been tried.
3. The kids who work in a restaurant to whom $100-$150 a month means a lot are going to continue to park anywhere they can within striking/walking/skateboarding distance. I know some that take their bikes, get close enough where you can park all day, and then bike the rest of the way. They are not going to stop doing that as long as the $150 is half their typical car payment. In addition, you are not going to get any public/private initiative to work (for an employee parking lot at $5 a day) when the developers need more than that to build one and need minimum breakpoints to even entertain building one and making a profit. We took years to get one on Robertson (just north of third street) in the mid/late-’90s and it didn’t happen until one of the local large employers guaranteed a minimum amount of spaces (like 30 percent of the lot) for their employees for a multi-year contract, AND the developer got a retail component of stores below the parking smack on Robertson. In today’s economy, you will not get one, since someone can (on the same space) build mixed use retail/condo now, which makes way more economic sense.
Unfortunately, unless there is a strong merchant and or ownership organization, which is what made Robertson’s parking work (along with the fact that it was a time period where the City had a few bucks, which it does not today), I fear we will just have more of the same. Unfortunately, that means more fake handicap and more cars pushed into the residential zones adjacent to the commercial blocks. Unfortunately, the price you pay for living near a commercial zone is high. However, if the inconvenience for being able to walk to everything is that your friends can’t find a spot in the daytime, that’s the price you will have to live with.
In closing, I would suggest, NOT extending the meter time at all. Making parking in the adjacent areas to commercial 2 hours max between the hours of 8 AM and 8PM to keep employees out of the residential and force them further out, or force them into lots, or…heavens…onto the bus. Last, very, very strong enforcement of all handicap placards, including lobbying Sacramento to overhaul the handicap parking rules to require even handicap to abide by the hour time limits (hell, as I said, they can even park in the 15 minute zones all day) we all have to abide by.
Feel free to reprint this, or use it any way you want. I really would like to help, but feel the direction of longer meters is dead wrong. Perhaps getting the larger employers to guarantee a lot owner so many paid spots a day, long term at reduced rates would be helpful. However, unless you have 25 or more employees, this seems impractical. Wish I could offer more.
