I just read an article from the LA Times posted on Parknews titled “Want to Park in Koreatown? Get Ready for a Blood Sport. Read it here.
Wow! Where to begin?
First of all, the quote wasn’t from a talented headline writer, it was from a resident in the area. Second, if you read the article carefully, you find that it isn’t that there is little parking in Koreatown, its that there is little “FREE” parking in Koreatown. Yes, there are some garages and lots, but of course you have to pay to park there. And people would rather spend hours a month searching for free onstreet parking than pay what, $25, $50 or $75 a week, to park in a lot nearby.
But let’s say I’m wrong. There is no paid parking available. Then what? Since the city has elected to subsidize the parking by making on street parking ‘free’, there is little incentive for anyone to provide parking. Why would I risk millions building a parking facility only to be in competition with more convenient parking that the city is providing for free. Makes no sense.
It would seem the solution would be easy. Set up a parking district. Provide on street parking for residents at a reasonable fee. Then invite private industry to fill in the gaps. If it makes financial sense, I’ll bet you will have more parking in Koreatown than you can shake a stick at.
If there was parking nearby, perhaps landlords could cut deals with the operators and provide parking for their tenants and include it in the rent. They would raise the rent a bit, but it might be a service that apartments could provide.
The other complaint was street cleaning. No Parking 8-10 on Wednesday. So people hover, waiting for 10 AM so they can get a spot. Sometimes they roll the dice and hope enforcement doesn’t show up and park at 945. And probably get a ticket. It’s a cat and mouse game played between the PEOs and citizens.
The purpose is to get the cars off the street so the street sweepers can clean the roadway. Why not allow the cars to park after the street sweeper goes by? If you see that the sweeper is finished, go park. Enforcement could precede the sweeper and ticket those that haven’t moved, fair enough. Why cite if there is no reason to do so?
Think about all the time wasted by both PEOs and parkers lurking and waiting for the deadline to pass.
I just had another take on all this — See next blog entry above.
JVH
