Blog

Oct 26, 2023

RE: DEAR WEHO

Dear WeHo, Okay, Guys. What’s going on? Per the attached photo, my neighbors

Dear WeHo,

Okay, Guys. What's going on?

Per the attached photo, my neighbors informed me this afternoon that parking meter poles were just installed in front of two of our permitted parking spaces on Lower Horn. I assume the rest of the meters will shortly follow.

Apparently we are playing whack-a-mole. Whenever we try to solve one problem, the City finds a way to create a new one. And never does the City think to get input from the people who are most directly affected by these ill-thought-out decisions. Is it simply busy work, staff looking for something to fiddle with? Finding new ways to give us grief? Is it retaliation?

Two new metered parking spaces taking over our permitted parking spaces. WHY WASN’T THE NEIGHBORHOOD INFORMED AND GIVEN A CHANCE TO WEIGH IN?!?!?

My question to all of you is, how do we stop this current project before it goes any further?

As I wrote you a couple months ago, we were concerned about Supreme clientele parking in our neighborhood where we have very few parking spaces for our (at least) 500+ residents on our three small, narrow streets. In fact, there are only THIRTEEN (13) parking spaces on all of Horn (going to 11 if this project goes through), and a total of only 39 (going to 37) on all three streets (Horn, Shoreham, Sherbourne). For over 500 residents and their guests. I understand that there will be some metered spaces on permitted spaces on Sherbourne too.

As we have brought to your attention many times before, many of these buildings do not have sufficient parking for their residents – including even in my big Horn Plaza condo building where many of our 1BR units have two residents but only one parking space. This is repeated all over our neighborhood.

When Supreme first opened, because some of their customers were parking on our streets – even though Supreme has its own parking lot, we contacted the City about expanding to 24/7 permit parking, instead of the current nighttime/weekend permits. Fortunately, Supreme acted as a good neighbor and quickly stopped their customers parking on our streets, so we didn't pursue the 24/7 permit parking. Are they now asking for these spaces?

The City should be aware that these two parking spaces where the meters are going, horizontal along the curb, used to be FIVE vertical parking spaces that were removed at Spago's behest years ago. When Spago's left the location, those spots were not returned to us. An oversight for our not requesting. My bad.

Why does the City even need to put meters here on our residential street? Supreme has its own parking lot which is more than sufficient for its customers, and the City Municipal lot is a few feet away. Coffee Bean has enough parking for its customers.

The City keeps saying that people aren't driving to the Strip or anywhere in WeHo anymore, that everyone takes Uber. Well, clearly that isn't the case if the City feels they need to take spaces from a residential neighborhood. How about giving us back the two spaces that were sold – without public notice – to Justin Queso's? Or how about giving back some of the 5-6 parking spaces that Dialog Café is now taking up with their OutZone space that they AREN’T paying for?

Do I have to get a petition going in the neighborhood and create a ruckus? I plan to have a full, formal neighborhood meeting this summer which I haven't done in a long time and can put this on the agenda if it isn't resolved before then.

Please advise what will be done about this.

Thank you – and enjoy the Memorial Weekend.

Elyse Eisenberg

Good morning, Elyse.

I’m Vince Guarino, the Parking Services Manager with the City.

I am unfamiliar with the history behind the angled parking on Horn but will work with our traffic engineer and traffic management program specialist to see if this change is doable without causing safety issues.

My thought behind adding these meters was to protect the parking for residents by installing them with signs that said 4R permits exempt. This way, customers of the stores on Sunset would be discouraged from street parking, since there would be a fee, but residents would have full access. Additionally, the meter signs would clearly state that the parking is limited to two hours.

I apologize for the anxiety and consternation my labors have caused you all. Not communicating with you all before implementing the change was a judgement error on my part. Next week, I will work with our Parking team to coordinate a community meeting so that you all have an opportunity to provide feedback. Until I receive all of your feedback on a path forward, no further action will be taken on this effort.

Enjoy the Memorial Day weekend, and I will be in touch.

Thanks,

Vince

Vince GuarinoParking Services ManagerCity of West HollywoodDepartment of Public Works8300 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069-6216323-848-6426 | [email protected] | www.weho.org

Hi Vince,

Nice to meet you. Thank you for taking time out of your holiday weekend to respond to my email.

We thank you for immediately cancelling this project. I hope this also means that the poles will be removed as there is no longer any need for them and it is just more sidewalk clutter that no one needs.

Certainly the neighborhood should have been asked if they thought this was a necessary project as soon as it was conceived. I hope with any future projects – parking issues, developments, etc., the City will remember that we are a very active NA and expect to be involved in any and all issues that impact this neighborhood.

I’m afraid I don't follow your reasoning that this would have protected resident parking. Even if there was a sign saying 4R permits were exempt, it would only be confusing to everyone to put meters where there were none before. It would not be clear that residents would not have to feed the meter, and even more, our aggressive ticketing enforcers would probably also be confused if the meter was not fed and a car was sitting there, likely not noticing the permit. Or ticketing even if they were to notice, resulting in the car owner having a hassle with the city to cancel the ticket. The whole concept is illogical.\

Meters also don't discourage visitors from parking. If anything, it would be seen as an invitation to park, negating the idea that this was a residential parking space. A visitor would be elated to find an open meter in that intersection where there is so much activity on all corners.

It seems the neighborhood will need to proceed with our request for 24/7 permit parking only. Is this something you could implement for us? If you could return the five angled / vertical parking spaces to Horn, it would also be appreciated as we desperately need more parking for the residents.

I am going to organize a neighborhood meeting for July. On the agenda will be parking issues. I hope you or someone from your department will join us to address issues and answer questions.

Separately, if the City is looking for additional revenue from parking spaces – since everyone obviously does not take Uber, – I repeat – , they never should have sold two spaces to Justin Queso's, and they should look at the excessive space that Dialog is taking up in their OutZone. The OutZone project was never meant to be that large and was for when there were few people driving which is no longer the situation. Dialog was always a very small space and people parked on the street in front of it when running in to pick up a coffee or croissant. Where are they supposed to park now? On Horn's metered spaces? Does Dialog even have the appropriate permits to be as large as it is now? This needs to be looked into.

Thank you and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Elyse