Seven Dollar Crunch

By Gene Williams
Staff Writer

March 12 -- They shuffle their cars, compete for spaces on the street or hang out on the Promenade until one in the morning. Many young low-wage workers Downtown will do whatever it takes to beat the parking system.

"It's a hassle," said Johnny, who works at a shoe store on the Third Street Promenade. "I end up moving my car, like, every three hours."

For Johnny ­ who like many workers interviewed for this article declined to give his full name ­ finding free parking is part of his daily routine, a task he must squeeze into his work schedule several times a day.

When he arrives to work, Johnny takes advantage of the three hours of free parking at Santa Monica Place, then moves his car to one of the City's public parking structures, only to move it again less than two hours later.

It's a lot of work to save seven bucks. But for many low-wage workers, it's worth the hassle when the daily parking fee often amounts to an hour's worth of pay.

"Seven bucks a day, it adds up," said Ben Cole, who works at a downtown clothing store. Paying to park "adds up to hundreds of dollars," he said.

"If you're making a minimal amount of money, seven dollars is a considerable hit," said Kathleen Rawson, executive director of the Bayside District Corporation, which runs the Downtown.

"We understand that the lack of employee parking is a serious problem," Rawson said. "We've been looking into solutions for some time." But, Rawson added, solutions don't come quickly.

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One solution that has only seen limited results since it was initiated about a decade ago is the monthly parking pass, which at $82 is roughly half of what a worker pays to park in the structures at the regular rate.

But although the City has issued enough monthly passes to fill more than a third of the nearly 3,000 parking spaces in its six Downtown public parking structures, City officials acknowledge that the demand far exceeds the supply. And there's a waiting list with approximately 1,000 names.

"Monthly passes in the City garages are pretty much the cheapest
parking Downtown," said City Transportation Manager Lucy Dyke, but, she added, the "waiting list is two years in some cases."

Rick Cuevas, who works at the newsstand on the Promenade, has been waiting for a parking pass so long, he's exhausted all the options -- shuffling his car when he can break away from work, taking the bus, even paying to park. "I think we've been on the waiting list for, like, three years," Cuevas said. (Photo by Phil Wayne)

Downtown workers may not be the only ones competing for the coveted monthly passes. You don't have to be a resident or work Downtown to apply, and there is no screening process. Once you get a pass, it can be renewed over and over.

Many downtown restaurants and shops lucky enough to have the passes ­- called "key cards" ­ give them out as perks to their managers; few businesses offer the passes to their lowest-paid employees, making the key cards something of a status symbol.

And so, those on the lower end of the job totem pole either pay the $7, find some other way to get to work or cheat the system.

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One of those getting hit is Karen, who works at a clothing store on the Promenade.

"We have to pay for parking everyday, so it costs me seven dollars everyday, so I pretty much work one hour a day for free," said Karen.

Karen used to shuttle her car between parking structures on her coffee breaks but gave that up. "I can't make it there and back in fifteen minutes," she said, adding that, besides not wanting to return late for work, she needs to stop and eat sometimes.

For Karen, working nights is better; if you can't find a free spot on 5th or 6th Streets after 6 p.m., you can always park in the structures and hang out at Barney's Beanery until 1 a.m., when the parking attendants leave. Then the gates go up, and you can leave the structures without paying.

Connie, who works at an upscale restaurant, said the waiters and waitresses downtown also prefer working nights. Not only are the tips better, but ­- like Karen ­- they find it's easier to beat the parking fees, she said.

As for the day-time employees, "I believe they pay," she said. "I don't think they're happy about paying. Seven dollars a day can be expensive."

But with more than fifty servers, Connie doesn't think the restaurant should be expected to pick up the tab for everybody. As one of the restaurant's seven managers, the company has given Connie a parking pass.

"All the managers have them," she said. "We've had them in the company since they started the program."

But having a parking pass doesn't necessarily mean your parking woes are over. Just ask twenty-five-year-old Targhee, who manages a women's clothing and home decor shop on the Promenade.

"I've actually had to drive home and have my husband drive me to work because I just spent half an hour trying to find a parking spot," she said.

"I came from a small town," said Targhee, "and so to find a parking spot where I [used to] live, there are [were] plenty.

"But, I mean, what do you do in a city? Do you take down buildings just so you can build more parking?" she said. "I really don't know what the solution is for that."

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Bayside officials are hopeful the Downtown parking crunch will improve.

For one, the new $66 million Main Library, slated to be completed next January, will nearly triple the parking of the old facility to some 600 spaces. In addition, the Civic Center parking structure, slated to be completed in fall 2006, will add another 200 spaces.

The new spaces, however, will be needed to make up for the parking temporarily taken off line when the City embarks on its ambitious $92.5 million plan to upgrade Downtown's eight public parking structures, including the two leased to Santa Monica Place, and build new ones.

Slated to be completed in 2010, the project will upgrade and retrofit older garages to help withstand future tremblers and add more than 1,700 spaces in new structures.

Under the plan, the City will retrofit and redevelop parking structures 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8 and demolish structures 1, 3 and 6. Retrofitting of structure 5 begins this month.

City officials are securing 1,100 interim parking spaces at the new library and the new Civic Center parking structures while they work to cement deals to develop new parking supply.

But Bayside officials worry that any parking gains would be offset, at least temporarily, if a proposal to redevelop Santa Monica Place moves forward, taking 2,000 spaces off-line during construction, which would likely last several years.

In the long term, adding parking, especially for employees, will not only help the worker's bottom line, it could ease traffic congestion, Downtown officials contend.

While moving cars from structure to structure may not be violating the letter of the law, Rawson said, "it certainly doesn't help our Downtown traffic and that's a problem."

But, if efforts to avoid paying parking fees are contributing to traffic, they're also helping to keep cars off Downtown streets.

In an effort to save the $7 fee, Cole ­ who lives on 16th Street and Santa Monica Boulevard ­ walks 13 blocks to and from his job at a clothing store each working day. Santa Monica "is an expensive place to live," he said.

Turkish born Celil Avci said it's a half hour bus ride from his home in Westwood to Downtown Santa Monica.

"I have a car, but I take the bus because of the parking problem," said Avci, who sells toys from a cart on the Third Street Promenade.

The choice between driving and public transportation poses no dilemma for Sarah. She doesn't own a car. "I live in Venice. I take the bus. It takes me about fifteen minutes," she said.

"But if I didn't live so close as I do, I wouldn't want to take public
transportation," said the New York native. "It's terrible in L.A."