The West Hollywood City Council will explore other ways to help you enjoy your morning on the week after Christmas after it rejected proposal last night by Mayor Lauren Meister to let drivers park for free until 10 a.m. at metered spaces.
Meister’s “enjoy your morning” free parking initiative would have allowed free parking from 8 to 10 a.m. on the street. “This small change in the parking meter hours of operation will give residents a chance to not worry about parking meters on their vacation mornings an possibly also save a dollar or two,” said a memo about the proposal presented to the city council.
The two-hour extension of free parking, now available until 8 a.m., would have cost the city an estimated $21,449 over six days, a calculation based on the meter charge of $1.50 an hour and the assumption that the occupancy rate of metered spaces would be 60%.
Councilmember John Heilman said he understood “the sentiment of it,” but that lots of WeHo residents are out of town anyway during that week, and lots of businesses aren’t open that early. Councilmember John Duran said the two free hours would encourage employees of area businesses to take the parking spaces, denying them to shoppers.
The council agreed to ask city staffers to return to another meeting with other recommendations for how West Hollywood residents can enjoy their mornings after Christmas.
the city should just buy us a cup of coffee one morning that week!
The City should just buy us a cup coffee one morning that week, I mean, if it really is about helping us enjoy that week during the morning more!
There is sufficient “short term” parking for residents and visitors…..it’s called: ACTIVE parking meters.
Make meters free on Sundays, Christmas week mornings or after 8 or 10pm and you’ll create INSUFFICIENT parking for residents and visitors…..Why?….because the early bird parking meter hoarders will turn “short term parking” into “long term parking”.
This was a good decision by the Council.
I too understand the sentiment and direction Mayor Meister was going. I think it might be better to bring back Sundays as a meter-free day or something like that. But until there is sufficient parking for residents, visitors and workers alike, it’s going to remain a difficult problem to solve. Perhaps the days of free parking anywhere in WeHo are gone for good or at least until Skynet takes over all driving tasks and the use of personal cars for any kind of shopping or commuting is on the decline.
The real point here is that Councilmember Meister is trying to do something that could benefit residents. The fact that some are out of town is really irrelevant. It may be that this needs to be tweaked, but in the meantime, Thank You Lauren, for thinking of us!