CommentsALPERN AT LARGE--Ya wanna know what's funny? The way that the majority of ALL residents, regardless of socioeconomic status, race, geography, and immigration status keep pushing and paying for more transit amenities AND parking but are told the former is great while the latter is a "no-go".
Ya wanna know what's funny? The way that the CD11 (Bonin) and CD5 (Koretz) offices promised to have a Parking Demand study when the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) requested it, and then reneged on that promise because that was assigned to the Community Plan Update team, who in turn said that a Parking Demand study wasn't legally or financially assigned to it.
Ya wanna know what's funny? How Measure R and M funds, and other transportation funding, makes its way to pushing for "Road Diets", which even most bicyclists don't want (and who also use their cars) but not for parking.
Ya wanna know what's funny? How the majority of Angelenos took a leap of faith to build more trains and transit lines, including funding their operations, but when asking about parking and access to trains and transit are told they are NOT going to get enough parking...and who then are forced to use their cars even more.
Ya wanna know what's funny? How the majority of Metro staff and board members use their cars to get from Point A to Point B and do so to save time and because of their job requirements but demand the rest of us somehow use transit even though it adds an hour or more each way to our daily commute.
Ya wanna know what's funny? How L.A. City Council and Mayoral political and bureaucratic officials will push for denser and higher development, even development that really is NOT transit-friendly, but will minimize the requirement for those developers to build enough parking ... because parking is "expensive".
Of course, this craziness and gaslighting makes more sense when you realize that the City and County (more so the former than the latter, but to an extent both groups) despise the taxpaying, hard-working Angelenos and other residents of Southern California who need and want (and will pay for!) transit and parking alike ... even when parking is needed to access transit.
And of course, this really isn't funny at all.
(CityWatch Columnist, Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father to two cherished children and a wonderful wife. He is also a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Outreach Committee, and currently is Co-Chair of both its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure and Planning Committees. He was co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chaired the nonprofit Transit Coalition and can be reached at [email protected]. He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
-cw
