The new buzz around Downtown San Pedro is the sound of cars circling while drivers hunt for a rare place to park.
The redevelopment of a former courthouse at 505 Centre Street did away with 80 parking spaces used by nearby shops and restaurants, the Torrance Daily Breeze reported. Now patrons must scramble to find a place to park.
While parking in the harbor neighborhood has long been hard, it became especially tough after the February demolition of the long-shuttered courthouse with its open parking lot. The 53-year-old public building will be replaced by an eight-story, 300-unit apartment building and food court.
“People want to park in front of where they’re going,” Elise Swanson, CEO of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce, told the newspaper. “But the costs of parking structures are astronomical. Some cities are doing away with them.”
Few issues drive as many complaints in San Pedro as parking, much of it aimed at city parking meters. Their cost was lowered in 2012 to $1 an hour, cheaper than other parts of Los Angeles. And they’re turned off after 6 p.m.
But that, Swanson said, has sometimes led to metered spaces being taken up by residents in nearby apartments and condominiums.
She and others have called for the city to commission a new parking study.
People now circle Downtown blocks in search of parking when there’s a new 80-space lot at Harbor Boulevard and Seventh Street next to the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, with links to free trolley rides into the Downtown area just a couple blocks away.
But some say the trolley system needs to be revamped to focus on the central part of Downtown.
“We’re going to have to figure out another parking situation,” said Yolanda Regalado, president and interim director of the San Pedro Business Improvement District. “We’re getting inundated with all the new building coming in around the Downtown and more restaurants opening up.”
Diagonal street parking is one possible solution, she said, something that has already been used on streets where there’s room.
Others see a bright spot among the swirling cars – which may mean more people are heading Downtown to eat.
“Thank God we have a parking problem,” said Warren Gunter, a board member for the business improvement district, who ran a popular jewelry store. “If you’re in Belmont Shore or Manhattan Beach, if you don’t have a parking problem, you’re not running your business right. … You have a parking problem when you’re doing well.”
– Dana Bartholomew
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