CITY HALL It wasn’t the kind of welcome gift that one would want the first day on the job.
At the end of her inaugural work day at surf and skate shop Active, Megan Mah approached her car and caught sight of an image that made her heart drop, a dreaded turquoise and white enveloped tucked snugly under her windshield wipers.
It was a $47 welcome gift she would’ve rather returned.
“I was bummed the rest of the day,” Mah, currently the manager of Active, said.
She’s among a handful of downtown employees who compete for the relatively few free, yet restricted, public parking spaces in the area, moving her car every few hours to avoid receiving a citation or paying the hourly parking rate.
Free parking for many of these workers might become more challenging as City Hall proceeds with its plans to renovate two public garages that abut Santa Monica Place, bringing the aging facilities in line with the mall renovation, which is currently taking place.
While construction at the structures — located on the corner of Second Street and Colorado Avenue, and Broadway and Fourth Street — isn’t expected to commence for a few years, some local workers said they aren’t pleased to hear about one of the changes that will be taking place inside.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 26, 2008. Read the original PDF.