By Christian Boyce Santa Monica
I don’t like the idea of allowing businesses to buy or otherwise obtain preferential parking permits for use in residential neighborhoods. It goes against the very reasons that preferential parking zones were created in the first place. It goes against our Sustainable City Plan and it goes against common sense. It also goes against the wishes of many of the residents of this town, many of whom have suffered through years of scarce parking in their own neighborhoods.
Are we to believe that a lack of city-provided employee parking is causing hardship for businesses along Wilshire, Santa Monica, and Ocean Park boulevards in Santa Monica? That’s pretty hard to swallow, given recent reports that show Santa Monica’s businesses along those streets have enjoyed 22 percent gains in taxable sales, far exceeding the state and county averages of 7.7 and 5 percent respectively (Santa Monica Daily Press, Oct. 13, 2004). I haven’t noticed any vacant store fronts along those streets — looks like business is pretty good here.
Even if businesses don’t have enough parking for their employees, whose problem is it, and how should it be solved? I’m a business owner, but I don’t think it’s the city’s responsibility to solve problems that are mine — and providing parking for my employees is my problem. Maybe it’s “good business” for the city to try to make things better for businesses, but it shouldn’t be done at the residents’ expense. Putting non-resident cars into residential neighborhoods on a regular basis hurts residents, and that’s exactly the situation that our existing preferential parking program attempts to prevent. Santa Monica’s municipal code cites a desire to protect residential streets from non-resident parkers five times in six paragraphs (3.08.040 designation criteria). Not a lot of room for interpretation there.
Whether it’s a business owner’s problem or the city’s problem, I’m disappointed that the city’s “solution” is contrary to our Sustainable City Plan’s transportation goals — which include reducing automobile dependency, and reducing pollution and motor vehicle congestion. Our east-west corridors (Montana Avenue; Wilshire, Santa Monica, Pico, and Ocean Park boulevards) are already choked with traffic. Why would we want to encourage more people to drive to jobs at businesses on those streets by making it easier for them to park nearby? Santa Monica’s own Big Blue Bus company serves these east-west corridor streets extremely well, with routes along each from east of the 405 Freeway almost to the ocean. Why aren’t we suggesting that business people get with the program and ask their employees to hop on the bus?
It’s time we put considerable city resources into solving Santa Monica’s parking problem — a 365-days-a-year problem that negatively affects businesses, renters, homeowners, students, tourists, and everyone else who’s tried to park a car here. It’s a city-wide problem that needs significant attention. I understand City Hall’s desire to balance the parking needs of businesses and residents, and while I think the council’s collective heart is in the right place, mere nipping and tucking at the existing municipal code is not the way to provide a significantly improved situation. Rather than tinkering here and adjusting there, let’s start over, and let’s do it right. Santa Monica doesn’t need to fine-tune its existing preferential parking program — it needs a carefully considered, comprehensive city-wide parking plan. Let’s make one that works, one that we can stick to — and let’s get started now.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 21, 2005. Read the original PDF.