Council Greenlights More Preferential Parking Around Samohi

By Blair Clarkson
Staff Writer

March 24 -- In response to outcries from frustrated residents tired of looking for parking on streets around Samohi, the City Council voted 6 to 1 Tuesday to extend restrictions in certain preferential parking zones near the school.

The revised restrictions allow 2-hour public parking between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. every day, and prohibit all public parking between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m., except by permit, on Michigan Avenue between Lincoln and 10th Street, 9th
Street between the freeway and Michigan and 9th Street between Michigan and Pico Boulevard. Preferential parking would also extend to both sides of 9th Street.

"We have an untenable situation for the people who live there," said Council member Ken Genser. "They can't find parking for themselves and it's creating a very unsafe and unpleasant situation for residents during the morning peak
hours."

The council's decision came after hearing from numerous area residents who said they must fight for parking near their homes with high school students and local business employees taking advantage of the free parking.

Residents also complained of the dangerous conditions created by increased traffic congestion and "squatters," who idle in the road with their flashers on until a car pulls out of a space.

"We are a classic case of a neighborhood being overrun by outside vehicles," said 9th Street resident Kathryn Morea. "We're being made the de facto parking lot in the area."

In addition to spirited testimony, residents also presented several home videos of the parking conditions on 9th Street during peak morning hours.

The images showed multiple cars double-parked along both sides of the street, students being dropped off in the middle of intersections and lines of cars repeatedly circling the block.

"You cannot tell me there is an availability of parking," Morea said.

Although several council members expressed their general dislike of preferential parking and its domino effect on parking capacities in adjoining neighborhoods, almost all agreed that this situation was an exception, and perhaps even the council's own fault.

In March 2002, the council responded to the neighborhood's initial request for help by adopting limited regulations on one side of 9th Street that were less restrictive than residents wanted.

Since then, studies by the City staff and local homeowners have shown that the parking problems continued, and may even have been exacerbated.

"This is a Council-made problem," said Genser. "When the Council adopted the current rules we were trying to balance the need for high school parking with the reserved preferential parking. But I think the evidence is very
clear that it isn't working.

"What we have is a limited number of spaces, which are necessary to meet neighborhood parking needs, but are also the target of hundreds of high school kids and employees of local businesses, because they're the only
remaining unrestricted spaces in a residential area."

"I'm against preferential parking," warned Council member Herb Katz, because they push cars out of one neighborhood and into another.

"But this is a unique situation based on the fact that it's next to an institution (SAMOHI). While I will support this one, let it be known that I won't support any others."

Mayor Richard Bloom downplayed the effects of additional parking restrictions on both sides of 9th Street, saying that he doesn't believe there will be significant impacts on neighboring streets.

"The parking (on 9th) is so limited," he said, "that a very small number of vehicles coming in and out is tangling things up. So the actual vehicle shift that we're going to see is going to be relatively nominal."

Council member Pam O'Connor cast the lone vote against the measure.

"This issue is about managing a scarce resource and not about creating private parking,” O’Connor said. “The streets are public resources, they're not private parking spaces. I do think it's important to have some short-term
parking available there for businesses along Lincoln."