A total of 19 people gathered Thursday evening for the fourth public meeting of the Take Back the Boulevard initiative at Eagle Rock City Hall.
Sponsored by the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce, the meeting was aimed at discussing parking issues along Colorado Boulevard. Attendees included commercial building owners, entrepreneurs, residents and Field Deputy Nate Hayward from the CD 14 office of .
Besides recapping some of the information presented in past TBTB meetings and asking attendees about parking issues important to them, Thursday’s event focused on a key issue, according to Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce Vice-President Allen Yap: “Is parking a problem [on Colorado]—is it a problem at a specific time of the day?”
Yap, who runs ETY Parts, Inc., an automobile spare parts store on Colorado, said he told the meeting that he has “been on the boulevard for the past 20 years” and that from his perspective, the busiest time on the stretch of Colorado near his store is during lunch time.
“People who go to Colorado also worry about the cost of parking and about getting a ticket,” he said.
Photos by Herb West.
It should be a requirement that city councilmembers have to run or own a business in order to qualify to run for city council or any other government office. Stop parking meters. People shop where there are no parking meters. Don't shop in Pasadena or Los Angeles where there are parking meters everywhere. Glendale or Burbank has free parking in their malls.
Ajay, you can not even park for free when going to visit Councilmember Ed Reyes field office on Broadway. Have you ever been there? Visitors get no free parking. You have to park across the street in a paid lot or on the street with meters. And, that paid lot is right behind Arroyo Medical (not sure if that is the name) that provides free health care to low income people. And, now they have to pay to park too. They told me they asked Councilmember Ed Reyes office to allow their customer to park for free, but they were told NO. WOW! I thought they cared about the poor. This is a very poor area that surrounds his Lincoln Heights office. I guess he and/or his staff have no heart. Parking meters are bad for business and in low income areas. No one from the city has enough sense to do the right thing. They have no clue what it is like to run a business.
I agree that parking meters deter business, but I'm not sure if it prevents business completely. If we had to pay for parking everywhere i.e off street parking say at Chase bank, or in the Walgreens parking lot - then I could see a major deterence. At the moment it is mixed which is why it doesn't seem a big problem. However, parking meters just send the wrong message to attract business.
Parking has always been a problem in ER, and after all these years of TALKING about it can anyone point to anything that has ever been DONE about it.
Maybe the answer is to encourage free short term parking - i.e 1 hour, and then patrons would have to pay after that? I've seen that in Pasadena in areas away from Old Town. Free on street parking for 1 hour periods at certain times of the day. Maybe metered parking is the answer in the long run. I just think we should consider all options before saying they are beneficial or not.