> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Parking complaints head to cyberspace - URL: https://www.smdp.com/parking-complaints-head-to-cyberspace/ - Published: 2007-12-04T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-25T01:20:33.000Z - Author: Kevin Herrera - Tags: Government & Politics, Promenade, #archive-import, Homeless *KEEPING UP THE GROUNDS* (Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing series that tracks the city’s expenditures appearing on upcoming Santa Monica City Council consent agendas. Consent agenda items are routinely passed by the City Council with little or no discussion from elected officials or the public. However, many of the items have been part of public discussion in the past.) DOWNTOWN Parking can be a problem in Santa Monica, but who would have thought it could get this bad? Susan Self, a blogger on Gridskipper.com, an urban travel guide offering tips on hotels, chic shopping, cheap flights and public transportation, listed a number of Santa Monica locations at the top of her list of “parking atrocities” in Southern California. At the top of her list is the parking structures around the Third Street Promenade and the parking lot at Fred Segal located at 500 Broadway. In her blog (gridskipper.com/travel/los-angeles/los-angeles-parking-atrocities- 327194.php) Self writes, “The city of Santa Monica boasts acres of ample parking around the 3rd Street Promenade, but strangely neglects to mention these structures are also 24-hour homeless shelters. Driving through these grim, stench-filled … buildings is like some hideous dream where you’re trapped in a never-ending maze, pursued by crazed lunatics. Suddenly the $30-for-10-minute rate offered by office buildings on Wilshire seems reasonable.” Self has the same harsh criticism for Fred Segal’s, writing, “Even though LA is a frenzy of environmental one-upmanship, cars here seem to be getting bigger every month. Unfortunately, somebody forgot to tell Fred Segal, whose parking lot has spaces the width of a skateboard. “Someone also hid the news from his customers, who all drive pre-Kuwait-invasion Hummers and shamelessly take up three spaces each for a minimum of four hours,”Self added. “Which leaves you, in your saintly Prius, either having to park in the next state or squeeze in between these behemoths and have your new paint job engraved by their door handles.” The Trader Joe’s on Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica didn’t fair any better. It was ranked seventh out of eight total “atrocities.” Here’s what Self had to say abut Trader Joe’s: “While Trader Joe’s is indisputably a gift from God, the stores’ parking lots are a design of Satan. No matter which Trader Joe’s you patronize, and no matter how early you arrive, you will inevitably encounter the worst traffic jam north of Sao Paulo. The most insidious of these is the abyss located at 3212 Pico Boulevard. This lot never empties. Never. You could pull up at 3 a.m. the day after Armageddon, and you’d still have to scrounge for metered parking on the street.” Sound harsh or perhaps a little dramatic? City Hall knows it has a problem with parking, which is why city planners have been working hard to find ways to free up spaces in residential neighborhoods and on busy commercial corridors,creating bike valet programs while altering times when drivers have to feed the meter. The latest attempt at improving the parking situation downtown is the hiring of a consultant to prepare a downtown parking operations and financing plan that will help City Hall build new parking structures and increase efficiency. That could include installing pay-on-foot programs or allowing drivers to pay their parking tab with a credit card before they exit. The contract with Walker Parking Consultants, in association with Keyser Marston Associations, is in the amount of $200,000\. The council is expected to approve the contract tonight. The consultant will perform an update to the Downtown Parking Program that was adopted by the council on May 9, 2006 and includes plans to expand parking downtown by 17,000 spaces. The update will include an evaluation of current conditions and an estimate of revenue opportunities from parking rates, in-lieu fees, property-based assessments and other revenue sources to support the parking program. The program calls for continued careful management of the city’s parking resources to encourage people to “park once” in the downtown area. The program calls for the seismic upgrading of parking structures Nos. 2,4, and 5, the demolition of two parking structures to add a total of up to 1,712 additional parking spaces to the downtown area over a 10-year-period. Prior to the planning of any structure demolition or new construction, parking needs and growth in the downtown area will be reviewed. Seismic upgrading has been completed for structure No. 5; seismic upgrading is underway for structure No. 4 and the seismic upgrading planned for structure No. 2 is in the design phase. The cost for construction of the parking facilities was estimated in 2002 to be $92.5 million, with funding coming from a variety of sources, including increase in parking rates and property assessments. Since that time, construction costs have increased significantly and market conditions, including parking rates in competitive destinations and in local private facilities, have changed, prompting the need for updates to the parking program cost estimates and financing, said Miriam Mack, economic development manager for City Hall. In addition to the consultant, the council is also expected to modify an existing contract with RNC Capital Management LLC for management of the Woodlawn Cemetery and Mausoleum perpetual care funds. The contract modification is in the amount of $60,000, for a total contract not to exceed $130,000. A portion of the sale of each burial plot, crypt, or niche is set aside for perpetual care services and is deposited into a fund that is used to invest in equities. RNC’s annual fee for investment management services is.60 percent of the total value of the account,according to a city staff report.The fee increases as the size of the portfolio grows. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 4, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/120407.pdf?ref=smdp.com)