A friend of mine sent this from LaJolla. I wonder how many other communities are having the same problem.
UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL
Needless rancor
Shelve the La Jolla parking meter plan
March 22, 2008
When will it ever end?
For more than a year, a nine-member advisory panel has stirred division and rancor in La Jolla by pushing for paid parking at scenic La Jolla Cove, the expansive beach at La Jolla Shores, the Prospect Street shopping district and the Bird Rock business enclave. Residents and business owners could not be more emphatic – and nearly unanimous – in opposing the installation of parking meters in the coastal community. Yet, the La Jolla Community Parking District Advisory Board just won't take no for an answer.
The board continues to stage public meetings that do little more than generate heated opposition, as occurred this week when an overflow crowd of about 100 people turned out once again to jeer the parking meter proposal. Not a single person stepped forward to support it.
Last year, the advisory panel brought in a hired “parking guru” from Los Angeles to tell La Jolla residents how much better off they would be if only they instituted paid parking along the coast. This “nationally recognized parking expert” proposed a scheme that included high-tech pay stations with variable parking rates and a requirement that some residents obtain parking permits to park on the street in front of their own homes. Only the parking guru was surprised that La Jolla residents wanted no part of his complicated “parking management plan.”
Many who don't live in La Jolla like to sneer at it as an elite community of millionaires. In fact, part of La Jolla's charm is that it has the feel of an unpretentious village, where residents greet their neighbors at the post office or the bookstore. Parking meters would compromise the village character of La Jolla. The advisory board should shelve its proposal before holding any more contentious public meetings.
Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080322/news_lz1ed22middle.html
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Baum [mailto:rdb1@polisci.ucla.edu]
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 7:44 AM
To: emeyer@firstregional.com; rdb1@polisci.ucla.edu; feelie@ucla.edu; hal_lieberman@yahoo.com; lillhara@yahoo.com; ksalatino@lacma.org; kmsalatino@aol.com; susanlieberman@earthlink.net; flintdille@earthlink.net; terriedille@earthlink.net; cdubow@mailstation.com; knorthpole@adelphia.net; jeanlouisr1@yahoo.com; jsinvest@gmail.com
Cc: kj@joffes.com
Subject: Fwd: North Village Parking Initiative
dear VC homeowners:
i'm in taiwan this week, observing the presidential election. this morning i received the following email from the chancellor's office, and i wanted to share it with all of you. this is a response to my letter of january 12, appended below. it only took ten weeks to get a reply from the chancellor. the wheels of academia turn slowly, when they turn at all....
cheers,
--rick
Professor Baum,
The Chancellor asked me to respond to your inquiry regarding the North Village parking initiative.
As you may know, Councilman Jack Weiss has asked the Department of Transportation to study the possibility of allowing vehicles to be parked in the apron of the driveway so long as there is no blockage of either the sidewalk, nor the vehicle protruding into the street further than a normally parallel-parked vehicle, 18 inches. The study has yet to be completed.
Please let me know if you any questions.
Thanks
E. Felicia Brannon
Executive Director
Community & Local Government Relations
UCLA External Affairs
310/794-6824 office
310/794-6827 fax
www.advocacy.ucla.edu
Dear Chancellor Block:
As you may know, a group of North Village homeowners, renters and students has been fighting against an attempt, spearheaded by UCLA Professor Donald Shoup and Visiting Professor Michael Dukakis, to eliminate the longstanding practice of allowing apron parking in the North Village. Through a joint class project, Dukakis and Shoup have offered a rationale for their crusade that is, to say the least, highly disingenuous. This struggle has been going on for over three years, at great cost in time, energy and money to local homewoners as well as to those UCLA students who llive in this densely populated Westwood Village neighborhood. The net result has been that the City Council and City officials have, at the initiative of local homeowners, drafted legislation that would legalize apron parking in the North Village. Such legislation, which we strongly support, would affirm a widely accepted, de facto status quo that has been maintained consensually and without significant problems for nearly half a century.
Our opposition to the campaign by Professors Dukakis and Shoup is rooted in our deep concern about the severe shortage of parking space faced by North Village homeowners and renters. Ironically, that parking shortage has been sharply exacerbated by the continued dynamic growth of UCLA-- the very institution that employs Professors Dukakis and Shoup. As CEO of that institution, we believe it is your responsibility to help mitigate the serious harm to residents of the North Village that would follow from an enforced ban on apron parking, as demanded by Dukakis and Shoup. With the university having constructed new housing accommodations for almost 2,000 UCLA students in the North Village over the past three years, the parking shortage has now reached critical proportions.
Thus far we have held UCLA blameless, and have tried to avoid bothering university officials with our problem. However, we are growing increasingly distressed by the fact that the ongoing campaign by Professors Dukakis and Shoup to halt apron parking has caused us enormous inconvenience, wasting our time and energy while seriously eroding North Village property values. They have also manipulated their own students into aiding a cause that is truly misconceived and misdirected. We want them to stop, and as they work for you, only you can make that happen. We want them to do what they were hired to do-- train students and conduct research -- not harass their neighbors and make life difficult for local UCLA student-residents.
Now that Winter Quarter has begun, this would be an opportune time to terminate this unnecessary intrusion by Professors Dukakis and Shoup into the well-being of our North Village community. We strongly urge your intervention in this matter.
Sincerely yours,
Richard Baum
Professor of Political Science
North Village homeowner
On behalf of your North Village neighbors
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