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COMMUNITY NEWS

May 2008

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Postponement of SLNC Elections to 2010 Upheld
By Catherine Billey, Ledger Contributing Writer

LOS FELIZ—Where to park in Los Feliz might become a tougher question for out-of-area visitors if Los Angeles officials grant a local homeowner’s request to limit street parking in a large swath of the community.
   Resident Dana Cremin is renewing her three-year efforts to clear crowded curbs in the Los Feliz flats as she prepares to petition her neighbors to support a preferential parking district.
Under the terms of the proposed district, residents who live south of Los Feliz Boulevard and north of Hollywood Boulevard between Normandie and Vermont Avenues would have to buy permits to park in their neighborhoods. Cars parked without permits would be ticketed.
   “We have a lot of retail, restaurant and club business around here,” Cremin said, adding that customers’ cars often overflow from scant commercial parking lots into nearby residential streets. “This could be a helpful thing to all the people in this neighborhood, and force the city to provide parking for all the businesses in the area.”
   Members of the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council last year struck down Cremin’s request after local apartment dwellers voiced opposition to the preferential parking district she proposed.
   At a contentious meeting of the GGPNC’s Transportation Committee on April 10th, 2007, about 300 Los Feliz denizens packed the Griffith Park Ranger Station to weigh in on the proposal. During three hours of public comment, 62 locals spoke out against what they viewed as a biased measure that would unfairly benefit the less-populated, single-family home enclaves north of Franklin Avenue, while penalizing renters from the denser, apartment-heavy blocks south of that street.
“For some of these buildings, there is no parking,” said Michael Hyatt, who has lived on Normandie Avenue south of Franklin for over 20 years. He said much of the curb traffic clogging the single-family home area is created by renters who can’t find parking on their own streets.
“It’s just a shame—there’s nowhere else for us to go,” Hyatt said.
With only eight residents speaking out in favor of the parking district during last year’s meeting, the Transportation Committee dropped the issue. The following week, at its regular board meeting, the GGPNC voted to “adopt a general policy against preferential parking districts” that would oppose any future efforts to obtain one in the area.
But Cremin believes the strong community resistance to the measure stemmed from a misunderstanding over the preferential parking district’s proposed boundaries.
   She said the GGPNC’s Transportation Committee distributed an incomplete map to residents when it advertised the April, 2007 meeting. The map stakeholders saw only showed a 13-block section—or about one quarter—of the proposed full district area, she said, where the Los Angeles Dept. of Transportation in late 2006 conducted a survey to judge whether a parking district was needed.
   In the area bordered by Los Feliz Boulevard and Franklin Avenue between Normandie Avenue and Edgemont Street the Dept. of Transportation’s Brian Gallagher found that available parking spaces were, on average, 82 percent occupied, and upwards of 36 percent of those vehicles were determined to be from outside the community. Only 75 percent occupancy and 25 percent out-of-area vehicles on four blocks of a proposed district are required to qualify a neighborhood for a preferential parking district, he said.
   All the blocks south of Franklin Avenue to Hollywood Boulevard, and east of Edgemont Street to Vermont Avenue were excluded because the survey was just a “preliminary study” and the full boundaries had not yet been finalized, said Gallagher.
   “If the parking study data was good for a small area, then likely it would be valid for a larger area that would ultimately be determined by the submittal of petitions at a later date,” Gallagher said.
   The survey section’s makeup of mainly single-family residences and historic buildings might have fueled a sense of discrimination among south-of-Franklin renters, Cremin said, who felt the parking measure aimed to keep them away from multi-million dollar homes.
“People think it is a limited and narrow parking district,” said Cremin. “It actually covers a large area, including both homeowners and renters.”
   The abridged map was publicized to residents by mistake, said Transportation Committee chair Jacqueline Kerr. She said the city sent out the map and she forwarded it to stakeholders, unaware that it was incomplete.
   “There was misinformation that misled, and it was all unintentional,” Kerr said. “No one set out to confuse anyone or hide anything. There was just simply a human error, and I unknowingly disseminated the error.”
   Cremin last fall met with Los Angeles city councilmember Tom LaBonge and other city officials, hoping to push the parking measure forward.
   In an October letter to Dept. of Transportation general manager Rita Robinson, LaBonge said a preferential parking district is “certainly a valid option to address the parking shortage” in the neighborhood.
But, he stressed: “My support for this project is conditionally based upon the submittal of valid petitions in support of this district…from at least three street segments south of Franklin Avenue.”
   According to many locals, the district is not likely to get that support.
The issue sparked heated discussion at the GGPNC’s recent April 15th general meeting, where several stakeholders and board members expressed anger that Cremin is still pursuing a measure that the majority of the community said they vehemently opposed.
   “We don’t want a preferential parking district when it’s residents of the neighborhood against each other,” said GGPNC president Charley Mims. “We’re not into creating conflict between our stakeholders.”
Hyatt, the Normandie Avenue renter, said forcing area residents to pay for parking would be unfair to some who might not be able to afford it.
If a preferential parking district were in place, annual permits would cost $22.50 per vehicle, with each household entitled to three permits, according to Los Angeles Parking Violations Bureau regulations. Households would also be entitled to two four-month visitor passes at $15 a piece, and an unlimited number of $1.50 one-day guest permits.
“You pay more than that if you get two parking tickets,” Cremin said. “It’s a small amount of money to have to pay.”
   Cremin said she is now waiting to receive city petitions to circulate through the neighborhood and submit to the city.
   The parking district would need support from at least 67 percent of area residents, and then the Dept. of Transportation would likely conduct a new study to gauge parking patterns in the whole area, Gallagher said. The “maximum allowable boundaries” of a parking district are determined by the petitions submitted, and then expanded by two blocks in all directions as a safety measure against spill-over parking, he added.

More Parks Coming
to Silver Lake
by Michael Locke, Silver Lake Correspondent

SILVER LAKE–A group of Silver Lakers met on the corner of Parkman and Silver Lake Boulevard April 5th to discuss transforming the wedge-shaped piece of land into a pocket park called “Parkman Triangle.”
   Under the direction of Silver Lake’s Parks & Green Space Committee Co-Chair Ricardo Accorsi, community members have been busy identifying and cataloging scraps of public space—including medians, roadway shoulders and stairways and transforming them into safe and functional “gathering places that promote a distinct Silver Lake identity, with self-sustaining flora.”
   Accorsi envisions these marginal sites as places for people to “enjoy without being compelled to buy something—sites that behave as gateways and others that will serve as destinations.
   Besides Parkman Triangle, the committee is moving forward with two other sites, Larissa Park and Maltman Square.
   “Ironically, the future of these kinds of public, non-private spaces lies in their ownership,” said Accorsi. “It is important to have the neighbors around each of these sites have a say in their design and improvement, so that a sense of attachment is fomented.”
   Neighborhood activist Ara Babaian, who lives near the Triangle and has spearheaded local interest in the project, added: “This is part of a greater effort to turn the area south of Sunset into a more pleasant environment. I envision the space holding some boulders and native, drought-resistant trees and shrubs, as well as signage. Since Parkman Triangle is such a dramatic intersection, we want to transform it into a neighborhood focal point, a town plaza of sorts.”
   For more information, contact Ricardo Accorsi (323) 666-3366 or by email ricardo.marginalspaces@gmail.com.

Junior Golf Tournament Held
Event attracts 620 Young Golfers

GRIFFITH PARK—The 58th Annual City of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Junior Golf Tournament was held March 15th through the 17th. Approximately 620 young golfers participated.
Several courses were in play for the tournament, including the 18-hole course at Griffith Park and Sepulveda.
   “The young players were a delight to observe,” said coordinator Sylvia Langton, “very respectful, responsible and serious about their participation.”
   Results were as follows: Boys—Bhavik Patel won the championship flight; Jonathan Noori, A Flight; Tyler Sluman, B Flight; Ben Doyle, C Flight; Aaron Wise, D Flight; Brandon Kewalramani, E Flight. Girls—Lee Lopez, won the championship flight; Unok Suzy Kim, A Flight; Han Wu, B Flight; Arinda Bhanaraksa, C Flight; Amy Lee, D Flight and Mika Liu, E Flight.
   Tiger Woods was the boy champion of this same tournament in 1991.