To park or not to park?

It seems every corner I pass in this town has some sort of construction happening -- whether it is remodeling jobs like the Pottery Shack’s or Wahoo’s, or a new office building on Pearl Street, or another new home going up in the Diamond Crestview area, or another silly corner that construction crews can carve out from another little niche of a standing cliff somewhere.

My only question is, where does one park?

Worse, it is normally the residents asking that question.

I have seen residents who have been ticketed in their own driveways watch as a developer on the Pearl Street construction project parks smack dab on Pearl Street and Coast Highway as if he owned the corner -- never mind the stop sign he parked in front of.

He probably thought “Why not?” There’s nowhere else to park, because if his own construction crew hasn’t already taken every spot, then the construction crew of the new house around the corner being built has, or, better yet, the business on the opposite corner of Pearl that parks its tow trucks basically everywhere. And with only three parking control officers out at one time covering over seven miles, it is the residents who ultimately are having to deal with it -- and what resident wants to deal with that?

So who’s at fault here? Everyone likes to point a finger at somebody because everybody loves to be the faultfinder.

So who’s at fault?

The city, for not enforcing parking rules?

The construction crews?

The businesses?

I say all three, and I think everyone can agree that something needs to be done about the residential parking woes of this town. One way to ease the strain of this increasing parking epidemic is to issue preferred residential parking permits.

Second, perhaps construction crews could spread their vehicles over a couple of blocks instead of completely inundating one block with parking. This same method could be used for businesses in nearby neighborhoods.

This, however, is a short-term solution, and one that already has its own concerns.

Who will enforce these permits?

Can we hire more parking-control officers?

More than likely the answer is a big “no.” Which means that our quality of life here will continue to deteriorate as our town continues to be “pro-business” without any solutions in hand for the residents. A town that use to be known for being pro-resident now has a hard time acknowledging national holidays such as World AIDS Day.

Surely one must know that with parking problems, we also have increased traffic problems that used to be a problem only in summer months and on holidays. This has now grown into an everyday problem. It’s sad, but with more people there is the need for more enforcement. In a million years I never would have thought that our town would need one Marine protection officer -- now it needs two.

So what does it all mean?

If our planning commission and City Council do not take a closer look at a slow-growth period in our town (I mean city), the residents will suffer. And the beaches and green belts will also continue to suffer, until one day our town is bought and sold a thousand times and is no different than Huntington Beach.

Now there’s a scary thought.

Peace.

* James Pribram can be reached at [email protected].

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