By Ted Winterer President, Ocean Park Association
Many thanks for Kevin Herrera’s article on the city’s pilot program to provide free, off-street parking for the Main Street Farmers Market. Hopefully, readers of the Daily Press will now utilize this resource and reduce traffic and parking woes in Ocean Park on Sunday mornings.
Kudos are certainly due to Miriam Mack and other city staffers for implementing these measures. And Gary Gordon, director of the Main Street BID, has finally seen his years of advocating for free use of the beach lots for market shoppers pay off and deserves credit for his perseverance.
However, the article failed to mention the role of the Ocean Park Association (OPA) in persuading City Hall to take steps to ease traffic and parking congestion in our neighborhood. OPA has advocated since January for opening up Beach Lot 5 to market shoppers. In fact, it may have been this confluence of business and resident interests which convinced city officials to assay the pilot program.
In addition, it was OPA which suggested both the use of the Muir-SMASH lots for free market parking and the additional bike racks at the market to encourage more people to leave their cars at home.
So we deserve at least a little credit for the implementation of this pilot program and hope it proves such a resounding success that is deployed for the long term.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 3, 2006. Read the original PDF.