No Parking Burgeoning Problem Is Driving Motorists Crazy

Julie Filipiak says she hurries to get home from work each day as early as possible so she can “maybe find a parking spot.”

If she actually gets a space near her house, Filipiak says, she tries to avoid using her car at night. “I really, really, really must have to go somewhere to leave my parking space,” said the marketing-data specialist who lives near downtown Long Beach.

Parking--or the scarcity of it--has changed Filipiak’s life.

She stopped volunteering at a shelter last fall because she became tired of not finding nearby parking upon returning home. She also cancelled a weekly evening women’s group session at her house. And like many of her neighbors, Filipiak, 46, has received a number of parking tickets. Once, her car was towed away by the city because she had five unpaid parking tickets.

Filipiak’s tales of frustration, which include the time she was waved away by a woman defiantly “saving” a parking spot by standing in it, are common in a growing number of neighborhoods in Long Beach.

A Part of City Life

In some neighborhoods, parking problems have been a part of life for many years. In others, such woes were created only recently, as Long Beach experienced a boom in development. That is partly why an increasing number of residents have been campaigning for fewer and smaller developments.

The parking problem is not only inconvenient to residents, says one city official, but it is an indication of trouble to come--a time bomb that could turn once-quaint neighborhoods into overcrowded slums.

“When you frustrate a neighborhood so much that it can’t get parking,” Vice Mayor Wallace Edgerton predicted, “the more successful people, those who have a choice, are going to move out. Those who are stuck there are older citizens, or people on a fixed income, or those who flock to lower-income areas.

“To not do something about parking is to allow a cancer to grow.

The problem has city officials searching for solutions, experimenting more and more with neighborhood parking-permit programs and other methods of regulation.

In the meantime, city government is making a profit off a problem that some officials reluctantly admit was created in part by their own poor city planning.

Consider that:

Officials expect City Hall to collect almost twice as much money this year on parking tickets as it collected 5 years ago--$7.9 million compared to $4.1 million during fiscal 1983-84.

City employees issued 439,479 citations during fiscal 1987-88--enough to give one citation to every man, woman and child in Long Beach and still have thousands left over. Street-sweeping violations accounted for the biggest chunk: 297,312 tickets. The Police Department--the largest of six city agencies empowered to write parking tickets--issued 120,132 during 1987-88. (By comparison, police gave 40,399 tickets for moving violations, according to police Cmdr. Charles Parks.)

Parking tickets accounted for $6.2 million in fines during 1987-88--about $900,000 more than the year before and $1.7 million less than what officials expect this year. Part of that anticipated increase can be attributed to higher rates, which were raised by the City Council last spring.

Councilman Warren Harwood joined in that unanimous vote, but recently echoed the sentiments of residents who complain that the city is unfairly taxing those who have little or no choice in their daily quest for parking.

“If people are caught in a trap that we helped create,” Harwood said, “maybe we’re adding insult to injury to try to profit off their misery. . . .

“Parking is very lucrative,” the councilman continued. “It is clear that the city, in adopting fee (increases) beyond the cost-of-living increase and beyond the cost of running the program, is doing it for a revenue-generating purpose.”

Administrative officials acknowledge that tickets translate to revenue, but they say the fines are necessary to enforce parking laws.

“Yes, there isn’t any doubt that parking, traffic violations and others are income to the city,” Budget Director Jim Algie said. But the fines had not been raised in at least 2 years, and the amount accounts for only a small percentage of the $1 billion-plus city budget, he continued.

Henry Taboada, who oversees the city’s billing and collection department, said, “sure, revenue is one consideration. There’s also a need to clean the streets. That’s a consideration. The other thing, too, is that we were on the low end (compared to other cities.)”

The fine for blocking a street sweeper, for example, was $15 until the council raised it to $20 in June. The average fine in neighboring communities is $18, according to Algie. Los Angeles charges $28.

Street-sweeping days, when parking is banned between certain hours, are the toughest times for many residents.

“When you can park on only one side of the street, it makes it terribly hard,” said Kyle Fuller, a car salesman who lives in downtown. It is even more difficult, Fuller said, because his apartment is near a popular pizzeria on Broadway Avenue and he must compete with the restaurant’s clientele for space.

Explanations Go Back in Time

How did parking get to be such a headache? The explanations vary.

Back in the 1930s and ‘40s, city housing tracts and apartment buildings were constructed with little, if any, room for parking. As Councilwoman Jan Hall, a 43-year resident, said: “There was a time when people weren’t sure the car was going to stay around.” Back then, she continued, “who would have thought a family would have more than one car?

“Our whole life style in this country has changed. If a kid in Southern California doesn’t get a license by the age of 16, he thinks his life is over.”

Hall represents the congested eastern beach areas in town. Belmont Shore was once more commonly used as a summer resort, so it was built with little parking and has therefore had parking problems for decades, Hall noted.

Inadequate parking in an area plagued by tourists and beach-goers can also put a crimp in the life style of residents.

“It affects your social life,” said Thomas A. Ramsey, 52, who lives on the Alamitos Bay peninsula. Ramsey said he does not schedule big parties at his home “because you have to consider parking when you have guests.”

Other areas, such as the Belmont Heights and Eastside neighborhoods, have experienced a significant parking crunch only in recent years. And City Hall’s drive to entice more development is partially to blame.

In the 1970s, as Long Beach struggled to revitalize its then-decaying downtown, city officials opened their arms to developers and relaxed regulations in an effort to spur not only commercial construction but also residential apartment buildings. Many of the projects created new parking problems. Facing pressure from the community, the City Council reacted in 1986 by creating more stringent apartment building and parking requirements. But some critics argue that the council’s efforts have been half-hearted. Just in the last two years, a number of key issues that could have eased parking failed to muster support on the council.

One key vote came in November, 1986, when a council majority approved broad new guidelines for apartment construction but refused to have the rules apply to developers who had already submitted applications to City Hall. As a result, hundreds of developers rushed in with construction applications before the law took effect. Mayor Ernie Kell and council members Hall, Tom Clark, Clarence Smith and then-Councilman Edd Tuttle voted against having the new rules apply to projects in the works. Because of that vote, more than 2,000 residential units were built with insufficient parking.

“It was ridiculous,” Edgerton recalled. “Anyone who had given it any thought at all ran out and got an application. It was an obvious ploy and the council let them (developers) do it.” Edgerton had voted against giving any development immunity from new regulations. So did council members Evan Anderson Braude and Ray Grabinski.

Measure Defeated

Another key vote came in February of last year. Edgerton and Braude again tried for an emergency ordinance to force proposed developments--holding permits but not yet under construction--to comply with the stricter regulations of November, 1986. Only Smith agreed to go along. Mayor Kell and the rest of the council defeated the measure.

Kell and his colleagues defend their votes by saying it would have been unfair to developers to change the rules on projects already in the planning stages. Clark also notes that in 1987 he tried to force all projects not built within 90 days to comply with the new regulations, but he did not receive majority support.

Clark blames Kell for “a lack of leadership” on parking issues. But he and others also point a finger at the city’s Planning Department.

“As the council, we look at management to see these things,” Clark said. “They are the professionals in this field.”

Mistakes Admitted

Kell acknowledged that the city “did make some mistakes,” but he said there is no one person or department to fault. “As far as putting the blame (on someone,) there’s plenty to go around,” he said.

City Planning Director Robert Paternoster concedes that the boom in apartment buildings took his department by surprise. When they realized the impact of allowing boxy buildings along streets once lined with mostly single-family homes, he said, city staff began advising the council to slow growth in the neighborhoods.

But the timing of new laws also depends on pressure from the community, noted City Zoning Officer Dennis Eschen. And while residents began pressing for less growth, developers--who often contribute to political campaigns and belong to influential business groups--wanted to maintain the status quo.

But public pressure prompted the council to increase the parking requirements for new developments in April, 1986. For most 2-bedroom units, for example, the city required that developers create two spaces for parking rather than the previous 1.5.

“Who has a 1.5 car? It was ridiculous,” said Braude, whose downtown district also suffers from a parking shortage.

Sociological Effect

Edgerton says that city officials sometimes overlook the sociological effects of their decisions. A lack of parking can especially compound problems in neighborhoods that are overcrowded, inviting gangs and crime. It “has serious impact on all kinds of human behavior,” he continued.

“Some of those new (apartment) buildings are going to be slums in 10 years,” he predicted.

Inadequate parking is one reason so many residents have been clamoring for fewer developments in their neighborhoods.

In California Heights, for example, hundreds of residents successfully petitioned the council earlier this year to prohibit the construction of rental units on single-family lots. One of their arguments was the area’s increasing traffic and parking congestion.

“We don’t want to become like Belmont Shore,” said resident Gloria Neal, who once lived in the Belmont area.

Garages Misused

In areas such as the Eastside and Franklin School neighborhoods, where some residents continuously seek to hold down the number of new apartments, people complain that some of their neighbors use garages for storage instead of parking. “What they have, they don’t use,” said resident Karen Pilcher, 41.

Edgerton agreed. “We have laws in the book that are not being enforced,” he said. “You cannot legally rent a garage to anyone (who does not live there. . . . But) the city refuses to do anything about it.”

Pilcher noted that enterprising landlords are making a buck by illegally charging tenants more money for a garage. If a tenant does not want to pay more, then the landlord rents the garage to someone else, often for storage. Pilcher said she knows of one neighbor who even rents out his driveway “for $10 a month.”

The council this year approved a series of laws intended to ease the burden. Among other things, the council opened the way for neighborhoods to establish their own parking permit systems. A neighborhood can also decide whether city inspectors should be required to examine a garage, whenever a house is sold, to see if it has been improperly converted to a non-parking use.

Permits Discussed

Over on Elm Avenue, between Carson and Roosevelt, neighbors are talking about what kinds of parking permits, if any, they should request of the council. Their area, which is near Long Beach Boulevard, is typical of neighborhoods that bump into busy commercial strips. Parking spaces on their street are frequently taken up by commercial employees and customers.

“It’s a damn nuisance in the residential area,” Furlow said. “You can’t get in your driveway. You can’t get in and you can’t get out.”

“I don’t blame these people. They have to park too, but it just impacts our area,” said Furlow, a former city Planning Commission chairman. “It’s getting worse and people are getting irritated.”

Officials say there is no one solution to the parking problem. Many of the proposals do not even create parking spaces. Instead, they are only enforcement tools.

“Parking problems that exist today weren’t built yesterday and they won’t be solved tomorrow,” Hall said. “We all must become a part of the solution. That means that if you have a garage, use it for a car, and if you have a boat, don’t park it on the street.”

Meanwhile, city administrators are looking at various enforcement options to help relieve traffic and parking congestion. Earlier this year, they recommended that police enforce parking violations with what is known as a “Denver boot,” a restraining device that can be clamped onto the wheel of an illegally parked car and immobilize it.

Still, other options are being tried throughout the city.

Law on Boat Parking

Within the next few weeks, for example, Hall said she plans to introduce an ordinance to prohibit the parking of detached boat trailers on certain streets, such as Appian Way. That could help people like Randy King Jr., a Naples resident who accepts parking inconveniences as “part of the character of living here.” But King is irritated with strangers who leave their boats parked on his street. “They can do what I did when I had a boat. They can rent a storage (area),” he said.

Officials also are considering paving over two acres of Marina Green Park to provide more parking for the adjacent Shoreline Village.

In Bixby Knolls, the area’s business association is considering forming an assessment district that would levy fees on members to pay for improvements that include parking, according to member Alice Rushdy.

Downtown, more than 750 parking spaces were recently created when Appleton, Cedar, Chestnut, 8th and 9th streets were converted to diagonal parking, according to Braude.

Free Use of Lots

Recently, the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency agreed to provide shoppers with free parking, for two hours in downtown city-owned lots.

The Downtown Long Beach Business Assn. also wants the agency to reconsider its contracts with new developers, who must receive permission from the city before they can build. The agency requires that new buildings set aside a certain number of parking spaces for tenants and visitors, said Bill Gurzi, president of the downtown association. “That’s very nice. But it puts the fate of future parking in the hands of a few developers,” Gurzi said. It is up to the developer or building manager, he explained, to set parking rates.

What Gurzi said he wants to avoid is expensive parking. “Look at downtown L.A. You can’t park there and go shopping there and pay a reasonable amount of money,” he said.

But no matter what the city does to try to solve its parking dilemma, it is likely to have little immediate impact on residents such as Filipiak. For now, they are left to rely on their wits.

“It’s almost like you have to study the neighborhood,” Filipiak said. “You have to walk the neighborhood at different times and see when are the best times (to park.)” Fortunately, after living in her apartment for two years, Filipiak became next in line last week for a garage. It will cost her $30 more a month--but she says she doesn’t mind. “That’s about what I pay in parking tickets.”

A TICKET HERE, A TICKET THERE

Long Los Parking Violation Beach Angeles Street Sweeping Zone $20 $28 Red Curb (no parking) $28 $28 Green Curb (10-30 minute limit) $20 $13 Yellow Curb (loading zone) $20 $13 White Curb (taxi stand) $20 $13 No Parking Temporary $20 $28 Parking on a Parkway $20 $23 Parked over 72 Hours $25 $28

Source: City of Long Beach ON THE ROAD . . . TO GETTING TOWED

Year Parking Tickets Parking Revenue Vehicles Towed Towing Revenue 1982-83 360,753 $3.9 million 4,567 na 1983-84 359,658 $4.1 million 10,429 na 1984-85 347,351 $4.0 million 13,439 $1.4 million 1985-86 400,604 $5.3 million 15,188 $1.7 million 1986-87 401,446 $5.3 million 19,273 $1.9 million 1987-88 439,479 $6.2 million 21,308 $2.1 million

Source: City of Long Beach