500 parking meters in Silver Lake...

The idea, the city says, is to make it easier for shoppers to park. But The Times' Rong-Gong Lin II reports that residents foresee a parking nightmare:

Some merchants cheer the idea of adding 500 meters, saying it will help customers find parking in an area notoriously short on spaces. But some residents worry that the meters will mean less parking for them -- and pressure on the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. "It seems like it is becoming like every other place that becomes bourgeois," said Tristan Saether, 24, a bartender who lives and works in the meter-free Sunset Junction neighborhood in the heart of Silver Lake. "It's one more step toward high rent." Merchants and residents say parking problems have reached unbearable levels in Silver Lake. Along Sunset Boulevard, the competition for parking is fierce, causing motorists to travel up residential side streets in search of spaces. "Parking is so bad already," said Kelly Van Patter, who opened an environmentally themed home and garden shop in Sunset Junction two weeks ago. "It's tough to find a spot as it is."

Comments

[LAofAnaheim]

It's better than adding a parking garage, which adds no street life.

[Jeremy R]

"I left LA 5 years ago. Moved to Portland Oregon."

Why do people from kansas city, portland, greendland, keep reading the LA times?!?!? If someone can answer that riddle for me, I will be a happy man.

I hated san jose and left that town years ago. Guess how many times I read SJ blogs? Guess how many times I think about SJ? Guess how many times I have been back to SJ?

0

Let it go people

[MIguel]

I have a question,

Whats wrong with . . .

" a neighborhood that is yuppie-fied, filled with bourgeois partners wielding babystrollers, joggers, shoppers, power walkers, and (at night) westsiders venturing in to eat at local restaurants. The place sucks now and I can't wait to get out..."

Would you rather gangs, drugdealers, and vagrants, just wondering, stop complaining and get your money straight.

[desertwind]

Why don't they build a parking garage?

It could even be underground.

(I lived and worked in the area 20 years ago. Parking -- even in those earliest-gentrification daze -- has always been a problem right there.)

[Horace Kohanim]

Yuppie, Bougie, Hipsters, Westsiders slumming, whatever or where ever I come from in LA when I spend time in Silverlake + Los Feliz for that matter I'm paying more more more. That's inflation. Everything is getting more expensive, more exclusive, more subjective. I have money, I rule. This is America, and thoughtful artistically inclined neighborhoods fight on, but don't be shocked or awed or flabbergasted that money trumps your local vibe.

[Annabel O.]

I don't know WHO the guy quoted in this article is, who had to park 10 blocks away from his house at night. I live in Silver Lake right off Sunset Junction and I have friends who live elsewhere in the area. NOWHERE do you have to park ten blocks away from your house.

Yes, Silver Lake has hipsters, but on my street it's mostly families who have been here for years. I doubt they brunch at the Eat Well but they're still a strong presence in the neighborhood. Pretty much everyone I meet walking my dog in the neighborhood has lived here at least ten years, if not more. Let's not sound the death bells yet, Silver Lake is still a great place to be (except for during that now overpriced street festival...)

[Bill]

I left LA 5 years ago. Moved to Portland Oregon. Clean air. Biking to work every day. I've never looked back. Thank you for reminding me of what a great decision that was! I shudder every time I remember life in LA...

[Hippy]

The arguments here are so 80's and they don't hold water. Hipsters vs. non-hipsters muddle the point. Face it, meter parking is going to be part of the reality of Silverlake, much like valet parking is now. I'm sorry to blow peoples bubbles here, but Meter parking done correctly, like Pasadena, Culver City and others allows for more parking spaces and benefits not harms the surrounding commercial interests. There is a formula and It does work. The absolute real concern here should be to make sure that the money made from these meters STAYS in the neighborhood that GENERATES it. The city of Los Angeles is notorious for pulling out the monies made on meters into a general fund and it disappears. IF the money was MADE in Silver lake, IT SHOULD BE SPENT IN SILVERLAKE.

[Peter]

I've lived in SL since 1999. The area has gotten completely yuppie-fied, filled with bourgeois partners wielding babystrollers, joggers, shoppers, power walkers, and (at night) westsiders venturing in to eat at local restaurants. The place sucks now and I can't wait to get out...

[Larry Kaplan]

I knew Silver Lake was headed downhill, and the West Side invasion had begun, a couple of years ago when I started noticing all those skinny waisted blonds driving their Cadillac Escalades and Lincoln Navigators with the baby seats in back at the Trader Joe's.

[DP]

Well, move to Houston, as I did 4 years ago. Much more affordable, wonderful performing arts (better than L.A. in most things). True, no mountains to hike. And an airport named after G Bush Senior. And some humidity issues as well as fire ants. But very (and genuinely) friendly people, traffic that will make you weep for all the time you wasted in L.A., and when you come down to it, a city is a place to live, and if the high cost of living in L.A. make the great climate and scenery (in the right places) more and more questionable, well, then, vote with your feet.

[PDQ]

Paul said:

"They have the same problem down here in San Diego in areas like Pacific Beach. Except instead of addressing the parking issue, they are trying to blame it on local residents who rent by putting limits on the number of renters that can be allowed in a house in a "single family" neighborhood."

When I rented my family's apartments I understood that the health code allowed two people per bedroom, plus one additional. So for a two bedroom apartment you could legally have up to five people.

Paul, are you suggesting that there should be no limits on occupancy? How many people would you cram into a two bedroom apartment or house? Ten? Twelve? Fifteen?

If you do that you'll have the opposite of gentrification. You'll have a slum - which Paul would promptly move out of, complaining about how the neighborhood had gone to hell.

Get a grip, sport!

[Transit Planner]

Al, you hit the nail on the head. I feel for you and your neighbors. I'm lucky that I live in La Habra, loctated in the northwestern corner of Orange County next to Whittier, a place that will never be "hip." Everyone in O.C. thinks we're in L.A. and nobody in L.A. knows we exist.

My neighbor's pit bulls and rots would devour those snapping purse dogs in seconds. The neighborhood kids would run over any bicycle riding hipsters with their hot rods. We also have tons of bix box, discount shopping and fast food restaurants with plenty of free parking ! :-)

[Sam]

When you have to pay to park in you own neighborhood it is time to leave. Silverlake has become an extension of West LA and now caters to the rich and the yippies described above. I accept that and it is not worth the effort to stay here, I am going to sale out and take my money and run.

[Bob G]

I lived in Silverlake from 1983 to 2001. Before (empty) bike lanes, Silverlake Blvd was 4 lanes all the way up to the lake, and moved pretty well. The addition of (empty) bike lanes required that the 4-lane road be reduced to 2 lanes. Trendy restaurant patrons now enjoy their lattes at smart sidewalk cafes while breathing in the choking fumes of gridlocked traffic. Progress!

Before the addition of dozens and dozens of new stop signs, side streets were pretty often reasonable alternatives to SLB and SMB, too. The preposterous number of new stop signs ensures that the traffic remains bottled up on the arterials. Santa Monica Blvd is choked with traffic lights, and all of them are carefully timed to ensure that traffic must stop at EVERY light. Yummie, more exhaust.

Even in the early 80's parking was a problem, but when the city installed lots and lots of parking meters, parking got much worse very quickly. Trouble is, parking meters bring stripes. There is a statutory requirement that defines the length of a standard parking spot when a meter is installed, and the spot is outlined with a couple of white stripes. On a long stretch of curbing, where 5 vehicles might have squeezed in, suddenly only 3 (or sometimes 2) were allowed. Reducing available parking by 40 to 60 percent was a wizard idea! That'll fix things, eh?

[Ruby Jackson]

The Rapid is a good idea, but doesn't work like it should. I used to take the 761 to and from the westside.... sometimes it would be an HOUR wait for it to arrive, then when one bus would finally show up, there would be a second one right behind it.

[Dan W.]

"Man, all the people who say "take public transportation or a bike" are hipsters. Yeah, like i want to take a non-reliable bus or get hit by a car as I ride my bike in that area."

--------------

Well, I'm not a "hipster." I don't even know what one is.

Gee, if you think you are too good for public transit, than you can live with the parking problem and lump it. We were just offering a helpful alternative. MTA service has improved in the last decade. Buses aren't perfect, but they are at least as reliable as trusting there won't be an accident on the freeway to disrupt your commute. Silverlake is also lucky to have multiple bus lines running, and a new Rapid Bus Line (704), and is not far from the Redline.

But go ahead, stick with your reliable car and you ability to always rely on getting a parking space when you want one.

But you are not better than any of us who take public transit.

[Paul]

I have visited friends who have lived in Silverlake and I have visited its wonderful SJ festival, but I don't live there myself so take my opinion for what it's worth.

How about making all the residential side streets permit parking only during the evening/night? Then only issue permits to residents of the streets. That way, at least when residents come home they will have a spot. Keep all the non-local yuppies from parking right in front of your house. Of course, people will find a way to abuse this. On the bright side, I'm sure the city will do an excellent job enforcing it, based on my experiencing parking by mistake in a permit-only neighborhood off of melrose ($45 ticket yay!).

They have the same problem down here in San Diego in areas like Pacific Beach. Except instead of addressing the parking issue, they are trying to blame it on local residents who rent by putting limits on the number of renters that can be allowed in a house in a "single family" neighborhood.

[Al Guerrero]

As a 12 year resident of Sunset Junction, I can add a few things to this issue.
There are approximately 38 businesses on this 2 block stretch of Sunset Blvd alone.
(Sanborn Ave. to Lucile Ave.) A little over 30 of those businesses do not have their
own parking. The remainder have insufficient parking. There are 8 food service establishments
with combined seating capacities of over 220 customers. One popular restaurant has
a capacity for over 50 people and no assigned parking whatsoever. The Gelato shop
alone serves hundreds of customers a week and they share 12 parking spaces with
3 other shops and a restaurant in their mini-mall. There are only 20 street parking
spaces available on this stretch of Sunset Blvd combined.
This leaves all of the parking burden for this daily overflow of employees and customers,
who all drive here by the way, squarely upon the adjacent residential streets. Local
businesses are all well aware of this fact, some almost with a sense of entitlement.
I was dismayed to discover that some of these businesses chose to make a request
to the city to install these permanent parking meters here. Those same businesses
may pack up and leave at anytime, yet the rest of us must live with the consequences
of their short-sighted wishes for years to come.
What was once a sleepy neighborhood with a few shops designed to serve the local
walk-in residents, now has high-rent shops that must cater to free spending hipsters
and yuppie outsiders who come to “slum” it in Silver Lake. Ironically, we, the local
working class residents, can no longer relate to the businesses in our very neighborhood.
Driving home from work today, I was lucky and found parking only 2 blocks away.
I hiked my way through the Sunset Junction labyrinth of outdoor tables, sidewalk
umbrellas, snapping purse dogs and beautiful people on cell phones who seemed amused
with observing us “regular” people in our native habitat. I smiled back, dreaming
that one day soon this trendy bubble outside my door might burst.

[cesar gomez]

Man, all the people who say "take public transportation or a bike" are hipsters. Yeah, like i want to take a non-reliable bus or get hit by a car as I ride my bike in that area.

Meters suck. If i see them i avoid the unless its after hours when they dont enforce.

[mike]

If you don't want to take the bus then you should try riding a bike to silverlake. One of the few areas in Los Angeles with a bunch of bike lanes. You can even see half of the bike lane sign in the photograph for this post. It is much easier to find a parking spot for a bicycle, in fact I usually get curbside in front of where I want to go!

[Scott Mercer]

Public transit.

Learn it. Know it. Live it.

Leave the car at home, then you will have not one thought about parking meters cluttering your mind. If you end up buying something so big that you can't take it home on the bus or train, have the store owner set it aside, then come back with your car later. Odds are, you are only going to need your car as a "hauler" a small percentage of the time.

Or better yet, sell your car completely, use public transit all the time, and that one time in six months when you need to transport that antique sofa or coat rack, rent a car or a U-Haul truck.

[Dan W.]

Also,

Even if the hurdles are removed, there will still be a massive political fight ahead to get the funds to build the line and NIMBY's who still dream ane pine for the Los Angeles of Sam Yorty's days and the bus-only extremists who would want all this funding spent on slow, plodding 40-ft. buses.

Even with the Purple Line completed, we will still need bus only lanes on Wilshire Blvd. Maybe the BRU will settle for an armistice or just plain common sense reasoning. We need both the Purple Line and bus-only lanes.

[Dan W.]

Take the wonderful new Rapid Line 704 to Silverlake.

Both the informally discussed "Silver Line" and "Pink Line" would connect mass transit to Silverlake, sot support that as well.

This article is reporting what we already know. The best days of single-occupancy motorining and the car culture are behind us. The era of car entitlement, where one expects to drive and park their car anytime, anyplace, anywhere, affordably, swiftly and with minimal congestion, are over.

Ever-increasing competition for limited capacity parking spaces will only continue to increase in neighborhoods all over Southern California as densification and urbanization continues. There will probably be public parking structures built in areas that have never seen them before and never wanted them or imagined they would see them..

As for me, I'll be on the Rapid 704 / Line 4, dreaming of the Pink or Silver Line(s) to Silverlake.