Parking Meters

Already reeling from high gas prices, motorists soon will have to pay more to park in Los Angeles. The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to increase the rates and extend the hours of parking meters in an effort to generate extra revenue and decrease street traffic. Pending approval by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the ordinance probably will take effect at the end of August. Under the proposed ordinance, parking meters with rates of 25 or 50 cents an hour would increase to $1 an hour.

Little devils. Coin-munching beasts. Epithets that can't be printed in a family newspaper. These are just a few names that readers suggested for the 42,000 or so parking meters operated by the city of Los Angeles. A quick recap: In this space last month we told the tale of Los Angeles resident Mariko Van Kampen, who got a parking ticket after a meter on Exposition Boulevard gobbled her coins but didn't display the proper amount of time. That's not surprising.

A couple of years ago, Los Angeles resident Jan Gabrielson met a friend for breakfast at Junior's in West Los Angeles. Gabrielson's pal parked at a meter on Westwood Boulevard, but the meter was broken. Conveniently, a parking officer drove up. "We asked him what to do," Gabrielson recalled. "He said they do not cite at broken meters until after two hours has passed, even if the meter resets itself."

In an effort to encourage voting in today's election, Los Angeles city residents will not have to drop change into parking meters located within a block of designated polling places. For today only, vehicles parked in preferential parking zones or on blocks with street cleaning restrictions will not be ticketed. Time limits on parking meters will not be enforced.

The city's Transportation Department recently issued a report that shouldn't shock anyone. It said, in short, that the city's 40,000 parking meters are on life support and need to be replaced ASAP. Among the interesting statistics in the report were that revenue from meters is down about $1.6 million in the last two years -- largely due to theft -- and that the city has had to "re-key" 1,000 meters in the last three months because people keep breaking into them.

For years, shoppers along Pasadena's South Lake Avenue enjoyed one of the best deals in town: free curbside parking. But beginning in January, patrons of the area's popular boutiques and big-name chain stores are advised to bring along some extra change for the newly installed parking meters. The cost: $1 for one hour. The new meters will stretch from California Boulevard to Green Street.

As Katherine Stein pulled her car up to the curb on La Brea Avenue in West Hollywood and stepped out onto the sidewalk, something gave her pause. With her friend Laney Roth in tow, Stein examined the parking meter, did a double take, and then another. Up and down the block, other drivers and pedestrians were doing the same. "It's really cool," Stein said. "It's awesome."

First came the trendy clothing boutiques and vintage furniture stores that opened next to laundromats and liquor stores on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake. Then came the upscale eateries and patio cafes. Now comes the parking enforcement officer. The city is moving forward with a plan to quadruple the number of parking meters in all of Silver Lake, mostly along the burgeoning business districts of Sunset, Glendale and Silver Lake boulevards.

HAS the motor city of Los Angeles given up too much land to the almighty automobile? That is the question driving Park(ing) Day L.A., an event Friday in which design teams will transform metered parking spaces into temporary public parks. The day is part of a national event conceived two years ago by Rebar, a San Francisco-based art collective commenting on the lack of quality park space in American cities.

With drivers' complaints soaring about the city's fleet of coin-munching beasts -- its 40,000 or so parking meters -- Los Angeles transportation officials Wednesday revealed more details about their plan to modernize the machines. The plan is initially to replace about 10% of the city's meters, with installation to begin in November. The last time the city replaced the meters was in the mid-1990s, when officials chose to blanket Los Angeles with just one brand, the Duncan Eagle 2000.