The word is “parking.”  Parking is one of the biggest challenges that the new councilman will be facing and what the Venice Neighborhood Council members should be facing. Residents need help.

Abbot Kinney and Rose Avenue are bursting with success. They are “business” successes and all of Venice claps for them. But business success in Venice translates to “parking poor” and that equates to no place for residents to park.

Department of Transportation has recognized there is a problem with parking near commercial establishments and that it is increasing and will continue to do so.   They will be proposing a preferential parking district before the California Coastal Commission in June as a concept to get a reading. They want to protect the residents within 1500 feet of Abbot Kinney and Rose Avenues so these people can park in the evening at least. Update would hope this could be extended to parts of Washington and parts of Lincoln Boulevards eventually.

Electric Avenue
Electric Avenue in Venice runs parallel and just north of the trendy Abbot Kinney. As Abbot Kinney fills up with diners and shoppers, the parking places decrease for the residents who live on Electric. Most of Electric Avenue was built in the early 1900’s and thus suffers from lack of garages that the new world has.

Above are pictures of Electric Avenue, the block behind the Brig Bar. The top one is taken at approximately 6 pm Wednesday. The bottom one was taken just after light in the morning. The cars on the street in the bottom photo represent tenants who park there.

The Brig
The pictures below are of the Brig Bar parking lot at 6 pm. After receiving the email from an Electric Avenue resident, Update went to see what was happening. A Brig valet got the last available public parking spot that “I should have had,” said Reta Moser.

“He cut in front of me so I asked him if I could park in his empty parking lot,” Moser said. “Valet told me I could for $8. Told him he was not being fair. He had all these empty places and used the public place. I would have gone in to talk to owner but couldn’t find a place to park and wasn’t about to pay $8 to the valet. Note there are a minimum of six places to park in first photo and four in bottom photo. This does not count the places to park in front of the white bench, which are used but not marked off. This is just not fair.

“Talked with person submitting email that will follow and person stated that the Brig has lunch trucks in the parking lot during the day and leaves no parking for patrons of the trucks. This is not a win-win.”

Six places marked here and then places in front of white bench. All empty.

Four places here yet valet uses the city parking lot.

Update feels it would be nice if businesses purchased trolley-looking shuttles to move people from the county beach parking lots to Abbot Kinney and Rose Avenues to relieve some of this parking problem.   The businesses should be happy to chip in a proportionate amount for the vehicles.

Email from Electric Avenue Resident
Following is the email sent to Update from the Electric Avenue resident.

My street (Electric Avenue) is parked to the gills all day and all night with people visiting restaurants and bars allowed to open with zero parking or inadequate parking. My block has approximately 40 residents. The street used to accommodate us just fine. No more. But we are all renters — and don’t have the big bucks or political connections of those who have been allowed to open businesses with nary a parking space and take all of the residential parking.

I am Electric Avenue resident since the 1990s.

I am writing to say that my neighbors and I (on and around Electric Avenue, Milwood and Palms) strongly support permit parking — the kind Mark Ryavec supports as effective: 2 hour limits to non-residents, but not just until 6 pm but at all hours. Since we live near Abbot Kinney — just a block away — we are abused by businesses like Gjelina, which seats 120 people three or four times a night, and was allowed to open with ZERO parking spaces.

It is no longer safe — or even possible — to park in our neighborhood because of the abusive parking granted to businesses. At night, while carrying heavy items, I will park very far away and walk to my house on darkened streets, as do other women.

I have, many times, driven around for 40 minutes, looking for a parking space, and often feel I cannot leave my house (if I have to drive somewhere) because I don’t have time to find parking when I come back.
Where is the protection for residents in the face of the abuses in parking allowed to Gjelina and so many others?

There is none, and has been none, and Gjelina is applying to the zoning board for an EXPANSION!

Additionally, the people parking in front of our homes at night are not neighbors and do not act like them. Sometimes, I am reluctant to leave my house by car because it means moving my car from where I’ve protectively parked it, in front of my gate. I’m protecting myself against the loud non-neighbors who get into their cars and turn on the radios with the windows open at 1 am, awakening my neighbors and me.

Attached are a few photos I’ve taken in the mornings to show how few residents cars can ever be parked on our block. If you don’t stay home and never leave your house, except at 3 am, it is impossible to get a space without maybe taking 20 minutes to drive around wasting gas looking for one.

My block is filled with houses and apartments built before 1950, which were not required to have garages per the law. This was not a problem when I moved here in the 90s, before businesses were allowed to open with zero parking spaces and countless customers (like Gjelina and so many other restaurants — like those that valet cars to our neighborhood). Also, I see the Brig’s parking lot attendant driving cars into the free parking in the city lot. I’ve called to report this (and have video of it) but nothing’s been done.

Please, please, grant us permit parking that will make it possible to live here without it being hellish. To tell you how insane it is with one more example, my boyfriend was coming over to take me somewhere, and picked up In-N-Out burgers for us to eat before we left. He drove around for a half hour looking for parking. I hadn’t planned to be ready to leave then — wasn’t showered — so he dropped my burger off and had to drive to Staples (on Lincoln) to eat his in the parking lot and wait for me to shower. This is insane.

Please stop the abuse of residents, which you can do by granting us permit parking with two-hour limits on non-residents.