Council Questions Parking Meter Changes

— Photo By TJ Sullivan —

The flap over the abolition of free-after-6 parking, and the extinction of the 25-cent-per-hour meter in Los Angeles has so concerned city officials that they've asked for ... a report.

After scads of complaints from places like North Hollywood, where theatergoers can't even enjoy a show without ducking out to feed the meter (technically they're supposed to move their car after whatever time limit is stated on the sign), the Los Angeles City Council today asked for a parking meter report.

Yes, the whole price-increase thing was kinda sorta the council's call when it approved this year's budget, but, uh, well, um ...

Forget that any LA driver could have predicted the public's resistance. In fact, Don Shoup, an urban planner at UCLA, explained last month that the aversion drivers have toward paying for parking might encourage more people to carpool, a silver lining that's directly tied to the silver lining our pockets.

Nonetheless, the city's Department of Transportation appears to have been caught off guard. Amir Sedadi, assistant GM of the city DOT, apologized to the council today and said his department would report back in three months with an analysis about how the new meters affect businesses.

If you listen closely you might still be able to hear merchants in places like Westwood Village and North Hollywood screaming "THREE MONTHS!"

In the meantime, it would appear that the city isn't going to forgive all those parking tickets that are sure to paper the windshields of countless drivers who surely won't bother to check signs for new hours of enforcement because they expect the hours to be same as they've always been. They'll assume that the meter maids lay off at 6 p.m., or that they don't start until 10 a.m., or whatever the case may be.

Where else did you think that $11 million in projected revenue was going to come from? The meters?

Even if drivers glance at the updated signs, many probably won't notice the change. Remember those nine-minute meters in Santa Monica?

— TJ Sullivan in LA


Other Parking Related Posts:

My $36.50 Parking Education

Fighting Signs with Signs

Westwood By Subway ... in 23 Years!

— Photo By TJ Sullivan —

LA Observed has posted a timetable for construction of the Subway to the Sea and other rail projects.

The information is, to say the least, frustrating.

Aside from the fact that trains aren't expected to roll into nearby Century City until 2026, it's going to take the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority six years just to extend the line from there to Westwood.

Figuring in the inevitable construction delays, many of us will never live long enough to ride it.

From the MTA report, via LA Observed:

Subway to La Cienega -- 2019

Subway to Century City -- 2026

Subway to Westwood -- 2032

Expo Line light rail phase II, Culver City to Santa Monica -- 2015

Gold Line light rail extension -- 2017

Wilshire Boulevard bus lane in city of Los Angeles -- 2015

Crenshaw Boulevard light rail or bus rapid transit -- 2029

Green Line to LAX -- 2016 to 2018

Westside to San Fernando Valley transit project along the 405 Freeway -- 2038

More at LA Observed.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

Roland Burris at the Overlook?

Really, someone should stop Roland Burris before he gets any closer to where this is sure to lead. Someone ought to explain to him that it'll take years to piece the wreckage of his career together just to figure out which mistake was the fatal one. Someone, please remind him that Pres.-Elect Obama has enough to ... oh forget it.

After hearing Burris interact with the press today it's obvious that he's been to the political equivalent of the bar at the Overlook Hotel, and is now determined to get into the US Senate even if he has to huff and puff and blow their house in.

Note to Congressional Fire Marshall: Hide the fire axes.

What else are we to make of Burris calling himself the junior senator from Illinois, or, more importantly, what shall American citizens glean from his seeming bewilderment at why anyone would question his appointment?

"Why don't you all understand?" he said today. "I am the junior senator from Illinois, and I wish my colleagues and the press would recognize that."

Roland! Read a newspaper!

After eight years of watching a US president who expressed nothing but disdain for the press (and little interest in the written word), we have no tolerance for the whole what-me-worry schtick ... I hope.

— TJ Sullivan in LA

New York Times Sells Space Out Front

The New York Times has given in and joined the industrywide trend of selling advertisements on the front page.

The first buyer? A television network.

Here's a sample of the text from the ad:

"At a time when there are more media choices than ever, the news is ...

America chooses CBS. In fact, CBS is the most watched network of all.

What more is left to say?

— TJ Sullivan in LA

Book Soup Founder Dies, Store For Sale

— Photo By TJ Sullivan —

Glenn Goldman, owner of one of LA's last great, functioning independent bookstores — the venerable Book Soup — has died.

Though I never met Goldman, I've been to his bookstore many, many times, most recently for Carrie Fisher's promotion of her book "Wishful Drinking," and I never left without feeling grateful that the place was still a part of the Los Angeles literary community.

Unfortunately, as LA Observed reported Saturday, the bookstore is up for sale. And though a statement from the bookstore said it remains open for business, the odds aren't great. Without question, it would be doubly tragic if, in addition to losing Goldman, we also lose his legacy.

LA has already lost far too many independent bookstores this decade — Midnight Special, Dutton's, Acres of Books, etc... Though hope wasn't enough to save the others, perhaps this time someone will step up and rescue Book Soup before it joins the list of former greats.

A book signing/reading at Book Soup has long been the goal of many a Los Angeles writer as it has regularly featured locals, as well as some of the industry's biggest names. Malcolm Gladwell, for example, is scheduled to do a signing there later this month.

The LA Times obituary says Goldman was 58.

* More in my post at NBC Los Angeles.


— TJ Sullivan in LA

The End of Free-After-6 Parking in LA

— Photo by TJ Sullivan —

It didn't take long for the City of Los Angeles to start instituting those higher parking-meter fees and longer hours of operation.

I snapped this shot of one of the new signs with my cell phone camera on Thursday in Westwood Village [see inset], where metered parking used to be free daily until 10 a.m.

Not that any municipality would intentionally try to make parking ridiculously complicated, but ... it might take a minute or two to decipher what the new terms mean, and to figure how not to get ticketed.


— TJ Sullivan in LA

* Cross posted at LA Observed.