L.A. needs their spaces
With parking at a premium, an idea to give some residential permits to businesses has angered many.
As more residents gobble up Los Angeles' street parking by securing special permits, city officials are considering doling out some of those coveted spots to businesses that have complained for years that their customers and workers don't have enough places to park.
From Sylmar to San Pedro, thousands of drivers vie each day for a limited number of spaces on the city's streets, particularly on the dense, traffic-choked Westside.
For some, relief has come in the form of a special parking district system that sets aside street parking for neighborhood residents. But the possibility that city officials might change the 29-year-old system to include businesses has some residents steaming. Some residents say these businesses should provide off-street parking.
"This stealing of preferential parking means those people who have money will grab our parking instead of investing in the properties in which they should be investing," said Danielle Elliott, a real estate agent who has lived in her Beverly Wilshire neighborhood for 40 years. "I don't begrudge an entrepreneur, but if you don't have the money to do business, it's not the responsibility of the community to support you to make certain you are earning money."
The proposal to include businesses in the permit system is part of a broader attempt to rethink the city's overall parking strategy as it struggles with increasingly knotty traffic problems. Many residents want the city to invest in building more parking garages and require businesses, especially restaurants, to provide adequate parking for customers and staff.
But a consultant's report completed for the city Department of Transportation last year found that the districts are "turning neighborhoods with public streets into what are essentially gated communities accessible only to the residents and the guests."
It recommends including businesses in the permit parking program.
Many residents say opening the permit system to businesses would cause further deterioration in neighborhoods already under siege from construction of large buildings.
Since it began in 1979, the city's residential parking permit program has mushroomed as more and more neighborhoods seek inclusion. The city experienced a 30% increase in applications to create preferential parking districts in 2007 over the previous year, according to Alan Willis, a city traffic engineer.
