Parking Meters

I was immensely pleased to read in a recent Glendale News-Press column that someone was motivated to criticize in writing the parking meters on Brand Boulevard (“Unclassified Info: Turning against the tyranny of the meters,” March 22). I’m sure a lot of people don’t like them, but with everything else going on, they simply haven’t been able to muster the energy to complain about one more irritating inconvenience. Yet Gary Huerta did a beautiful job of it. As far as I’m concerned, the city might as well have painted all the curbs red on Brand Boulevard.

The parking meters are still there in downtown Glendale, but for a while, at least, the spaces they guard will be available for free. The city deactivated its network of electronic parking meters in downtown Thursday after receiving complaints from motorists who said they had been erroneously ticketed. The meters - located on Brand Boulevard and in select parking lots - were covered and signs were posted informing patrons that they are out of service. Parking at electronically metered spots is free during repairs, which is expected to take between three and five weeks, city spokesperson Tom Lorenz said.

Merchants trying to make a living on our communities' streets, and the taxpayers who footed the bill for street construction and parking spaces, are under absolutely no obligation to indefinitely provide a free piece of real estate for those who simply can't be separated from their cars. So bring on the parking meters, for Brand Boulevard, Adams Square, Foothill Boulevard, and wherever else people insist upon taking root -- at no cost -- with their vehicles.

CITY HALL — The Downtown Glendale Merchant Assn. urged City Council members Tuesday to convert more than 200 free, two-hour parking spaces along Brand Boulevard downtown into "modern metered" parking as a part of the city's proposed mobility plan. The association hoped the council would provide a definitive installment plan for the parking meters after nearly two years of city discussion and several complaints from vendors about poor parking for customers. "The problem that exists is that the people who use the parking spaces along Brand are not customers, but people who work at the businesses along the street," Downtown Glendale Merchant Assn.

The new multi-space parking meters need a bit of tweaking if they are to be truly user-friendly. Saturday evening we entered the parking lot next to the Centre Theater. As we approached the payment station, we were startled to see the long lines waiting at each of the machines. Aside from the confusion exhibited by many of the drivers with respect to how to operate the machines, other issues were apparent. Most drivers expected the machines to accept paper money just as the machines in the Americana at Brand do. They were startled to learn that the machines only accept coins.

GLENDALE ? Downtown business leaders are celebrating a City Council decision to approve new parking meters along Brand Boulevard that they say will increase turnover and potential sales. The unanimous vote Tuesday was capped by great expectations from council members who said meters downtown were once just a remote possibility on a street that had never asked patrons to pay for parking. ?Years ago, the mere segregation of parking on Brand [Boulevard] would have gotten you thrown out of office,?

I was shocked to hear of Jay Drayman's passing. He was a nice and decent man. Our family shopped in The Hangin' Red Pants (his clothing stores) through the 1970s and '80s. I remember the day they took the parking meters out of the public parking lots in Montrose. Jay almost single-handedly took on this goal. My aunt was a merchant in Montrose at the time and was thrilled someone on the Shopping Park Board actually went to bat to do something concrete to improve business in Montrose rather than planning another parade.

DOWNTOWN — In the wake of the City Council's unanimous approval of a downtown mobility study on Tuesday, Brand Boulevard merchants are particularly excited about one of the study's recommendations: parking meters on the city's main drag. Currently, parking on Brand is free and limited to two hours. But merchants say slack enforcement of the two-hour limit allows drivers to use the spots for extended periods while they spend the day at the gym or in the office. In conjunction with adding meters on Brand, the study recommends eliminating the validation system at the public structures and making the facilities free for 90 minutes and $1 per hour thereafter.

Legislation introduced by Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Silver Lake) that would prevent cities from ticketing motorists who park at broken meters sailed through the state Assembly on Thursday. and his colleagues have agreed with him, passing his legislation in a 71-0 vote. Assembly Bill 61 passed on a 71-0 vote and now heads to the state Senate, where it will be assigned to a policy committee, Gatto's office announced Thursday. In a statement, Gatto said the legislation was meant to ensure that the maximum number of parking spots remain available for drivers.

Re: “ Bill targets broken meters ,” Jan. 9: Good for Mike Gatto and his legislation to bar cities from ticketing cars at broken meters. There is more than one broken meter on Ocean View Boulevard in Montrose which has been broken for months and months now. I tried calling authorities to alert them, but through multiple calls I could not find anyone who would take my complaint because it seems these meters aren't under any known authority or...

Legislation introduced by Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Silver Lake) that would prevent authorities from issuing tickets for parking at broken or malfunctioning meters may be eliciting fist pumps from drivers everywhere, but in the tri-city area, it's largely a moot point. Introduced this week, Assembly Bill 61 would essentially prevent local governments from enacting laws that make it illegal to park in a space controlled by a broken meter. But Burbank doesn't employ parking meters, and neither Glendale nor Pasadena prohibit parking at a broken or malfunctioning meter, although both cities do ticket drivers who park longer than the posted time limit.

Free parking in downtown Glendale is set to end Monday, when the city plans to reactivate electronic meters after technical issues caused erroneous ticketing and prompted officials to temporarily take them offline. Since the meters were suspended Aug. 11, parking officers have been manually enforcing time limits only. They will continue to manually monitor the electronic meters for two weeks after the machines are rebooted Monday, officials said. The meters were taken offline after city officials discovered occasional delays in the wireless communication signal between the electronic meters and hand-held receivers used by parking officers.

Glendale officials today announced plans to temporarily shut down electronic parking meters in the downtown area after discovering a lapse in the wireless communication with enforcement officers that could lead to a ticket for motorists who are still within the time they've paid for. Metered parking will revert to manual enforcement as city officials work to correct the problem. Signs letting people know about the change are slated to be posted later today. The multi-space electronic meters, installed at the turn of 2009, were conceived as a way to prevent people from taking up valuable storefront spaces along Brand Boulevard for hours at a time, preventing the customer turnover that business owners said was needed.

The parking meters are still there in downtown Glendale, but for a while, at least, the spaces they guard will be available for free. The city deactivated its network of electronic parking meters in downtown Thursday after receiving complaints from motorists who said they had been erroneously ticketed. The meters - located on Brand Boulevard and in select parking lots - were covered and signs were posted informing patrons that they are out of service. Parking at electronically metered spots is free during repairs, which is expected to take between three and five weeks, city spokesperson Tom Lorenz said.

I was immensely pleased to read in a recent Glendale News-Press column that someone was motivated to criticize in writing the parking meters on Brand Boulevard (“Unclassified Info: Turning against the tyranny of the meters,” March 22). I’m sure a lot of people don’t like them, but with everything else going on, they simply haven’t been able to muster the energy to complain about one more irritating inconvenience. Yet Gary Huerta did a beautiful job of it. As far as I’m concerned, the city might as well have painted all the curbs red on Brand Boulevard.

According to a recent Gallup and Healthways poll, anger in Glendale is on the rise and comparable to residents in Pittsburg. That fact rather astounded me, considering that when compared to Pittsburg, we live in the land of milk and honey. Granted, due to the rains, the last couple of months have not been the prototypical picture of California dreamin’. I myself spent part of Sunday vacuuming water out of the entryway of our house. And while that may have been annoying, it wasn’t enough to make me as mad as say, having to live in Pittsburg would.

Why the change in parking meters on Orange Avenue behind Damon’s Steakhouse and I’m sure on all the other lots in Glendale? What once was a meter per car has now been replaced by one central meter to be used for every parking space in the entire lot. You have to input your parking space number along with your coins. When there was an individual meter per car, more or less, everyone paid. Now, unless the meter man spends the entire time policing each and every parking meter area “at the same time,” there could be a lot of “free” parking taking place.

DOWNTOWN — Metered parking hours on Brand Boulevard could be in for a change after the Transportation and Parking Commission recommended this week that downtown visitors be allowed to park for up to four hours. The City Council will have to approve the proposal from the commission, which also suggested that meters start at 7 a.m. instead of running from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. It will be the third time the council considers a change to the metered parking hours in downtown, which were strongly endorsed by the Downtown Glendale Merchants Assn.