POINT OF VIEW
Y Phones, A Line in aMovie,
and SF – Again BY JOHN VAN HORN
OU CALL A company, and you get a computer telling you to listen to a menu.You can
select a department by pressing “1” for sales, “2” for accounting, etc. So far, so good.
What happens if you want an individ-
ual?You are told to press a number for the staff directory. There you are told to enter the first few letters of the per- son’s first or last name. You do so, and immediately you go back to the original message telling you to listen to themenu.You try again and again; you get the samemessage. Then you look at your phone.
You are calling on aBlackBerry, an iPhone or a Droid.When you enter the person’s name, you are entering it on a standard keyboard, not a telephone key pad. If you try to remember which keys have which letters (6 for M, 4 for I, 5 for K) you are sure to fail – except they told you to press 7 for Q and 9 for Z. So you are lost.You will never com-
plete your call. But wait – there is one thing you can do: Press 0.You will get a person, and theywill help you.Unless you are calling at noon, when you will most likely get the receptionist’s voicemail ask- ing you to leave amessage.
*** If you built it … dammit, they will
come. The merchants in Westwood, a shopping area in LA, are having a melt- down over
parking.The city built a garage on BroxtonAvenue in the neighborhood. It’s hidden on a one-way street, and most visitors can’t find it. Two hours free, and a $3 flat rate after 5 p.m. The first thing I would do if I were
concerned about parking inWestwood is that I would put up some signage that directed people to inexpensive parking on Broxton. The second thing I would do would be to form a parking district and subsidize parking in other private struc- tures in the area. Eachmerchant puts some
6
money in a pot and pays for parking for visitors to the area. Anumber of parking garages sit emp-
ty a block or so offWestwood Boulevard. These are businesspeople who have to charge for parking to pay their
bills.After all, we all know that there is no such thing as “free” parking. Somebody has to pay for it.
The Westwood merchants are com-
plaining that “free” parking in nearby shop- ping centers (five to seven miles) attract
trendy shops, the “people watching,” the up-market 15-screen cinemas? Oh sure, there are movie theaters – the old style where you sit behind Mazie with the big hat – and one is “down there,” or three blocks away, or whatever. Where are the promenades for
strolling and window shopping, with benches and street vendors?All the cen- ters I mentioned above have all that, and more. These places have built it and, frankly, people do come. Century City, The Grove, Bev-
If you built it … dammit, they will come.
folks who would otherwise come toWest- wood to shop. Let’s review the bidding: • Beverly Center – $1 per hour to
park. • The Grove – one hour free, then $3
flat for the next three hours. • Century City Shopping Center –
three hours free, then a flat $7 for three hours and oneminute up. • SantaMonica – two hours free until
6 p.m. then a flat $5. At The Grove and Century City, the-
aters and some stores validate. Itwould not be possible to do dinner and a movie in three hours. But the fact is that there is a charge for parking. In SantaMonica, the structures are basically empty during the week, before 6 p.m., and jammed after 6. Makes sense. So people actually pay
$5 to park in Santa Monica. At Century City, they have a validation program. Peo- ple actually pay to park at Beverly Center andmost do atThe Grove. Yet all these places are booming des-
tination locations.Westwood, on the other hand, is not. Merchants blame parking. I reallywonder if it’s lack of free parking, or simply lack of convenient parking?Or is it that no one really wants to go to West- wood? Imean, why would you go there? Where are the great sidewalk restau-
rants (Subway, McDonalds, and the like are certainly available)? Where are the
FEBRUARY 2011 • PARKING TODAY •
www.parkingtoday.com
erly Center and SantaMonica have all been completely renovatedwithin the past few years, most within the past year. They take advantage of new technology and ideas to make their centers attractive and destina-
tion locations. Santa Monica invested in its infra-
structure, and its downtown is absolutely booming. People drive from all over Southern California to visit the four-block promenade now, with its shiny new shop- ping center at one end. No one talks about parking. The Grove is a great spot, with high-end Nordstrom’s and Apple stores, great restaurants, and a 15-screen movie theater with stadiumseating. Likewise for Century City.Why the hell would I want to go toWestwood? The area needs to clean up its act. Peri-
od. If you build it, they will come, parking be
damned.As usual, parking is a scape- goat for lack of vision and investment. Sorry,merchants, it’smuchmore than
just a line in “Field of Dreams.” ***
San Franciscowarns that it is going to
balance the budget by writing more park- ing
tickets.Yep, “Baghdad by the Bay” is down a few million and has said it’s going tomake up the difference by getting tough on those overstaying their parking and writingmore tickets. The city – actually, the San Francis-
co Municipal Transportation Agency – had budgeted an income of $99 million from parking tickets, and it seems the budget is about $21 million short, so
Continued on Page 8
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56