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# ‘Pajama parkers’ may get some sleep
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/pajama-parkers-may-get-some-sleep/
- Published: 2003-04-24T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:05:39.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Community, Promenade, #archive-import

*Third Street residents want preferential parking*

Some residents on Third Street north of Wilshire Boulevard have been lobbying for parking spots in front of their apartments for nearly a year.

After successfully pushing the city last year for a preferential parking zone — where spots are reserved for residents — residents saw the campaign die at the hands of the Coastal Commission, which protects California’s coastal corridor.

While the City Council works on resolving that conflict, residents say they’ve been left driving in circles.

“It’s getting more and more dangerous,” said Sonya Braja, who added that Promenade-goers and area employees take the parking spots in front of her apartment, forcing her to park blocks away.

Braja and a group of people in her Third Street building, which is wedged between Michael’s restaurant and the adjacent parking structure, have dubbed themselves the “pajama parkers.”

The mostly-female group meets late at night to retrieve their cars from various spots throughout the neighborhood and park them in front of the building.

The group was successful in lobbying the city for a preferential parking zone last year. But when the plan went before the Coastal Commission shortly thereafter, commissioners ruled against the plan, despite a recommendation for the project from their staff.

The commission ruled against the zone after intense lobbying from the Embassy Hotel, said Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom, who added that the action was taken to protect parking and access to Santa Monica beaches.

Hotel management, which originally supported the plan, dropped its backing and hired Harding & Larmore, a local law firm, to lobby against the plan.

Bloom said the hotel revoked its support for the plan after the city excluded the hotel and focused the program’s protections on area residents.

In a good faith effort, the City Council on Tuesday voted to draft an ordinance that would give preferential parking permits to structures designated as historic landmarks.

Bloom, who sponsored the request, said the move was designed to allay the Embassy’s concerns and find a compromise with the Coastal Commission.

The Embassy, which was built in 1927, is a Mediterranean, garden-style building with 19 guest rooms, said Jon Fritts, the hotel’s general manager. There are no on-site parking spots for residents or guests.

“It’s really a problem,” said Fritts, who added that the hotel is eager to obtain preferential spots. “It’s a real challenge.”

A handful of Third Street residents — including the pajama parkers — showed up at Tuesday’s meeting to voice their support of the proposed ordinance. They believe it will expedite the institution of a preferential parking zone on Third Street.

If the hotel halts its lobbying, Bloom said the commission would be likely to accept the recommendation of its staff and implement the city’s proposal for a preferential parking zone.

In the end, Bloom said he is confident the city will prevail either way.

Though the city currently submits such plans to the commission, he said it is done as a courtesy to the Coastal Commission.

Ultimately, the city has a right to determine where preferential parking areas should be placed, he said.

“To make the argument that Santa Monica somehow doesn’t provide its share of (beach access parking) is pretty far-fetched,” he said.

Bloom said the newly-proposed ordinance that includes historic landmarks was aimed at avoiding a legal battle with the commission by encouraging it to reconsider its ruling.

“It’s much more complex now than it needed to be,” Bloom said.

At least half of the city’s eight square miles is dedicated specifically to preferential parking zones.

While some believe the zones are elit-ist and only serve as a band aid for the city’s larger parking problem, residents who live in these dedicated areas say their lives have been changed for the better.

About 20,000 residential parking permits are issued every year, which, at $15 a pop, brings in about $300,000 in revenue a year.

That doesn’t include the hundreds of $38 tickets that are issued every year to motorists who are caught parking in the city’s 50 preferential zones without a permit.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 24, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042403.pdf?ref=smdp.com)