I’m a resident of over 40 years in Old Town and want to throw in my two cents.
If parking is the issue address the parking, but the problem will never go away, for the simple fact you have limited space available. We cannot meet the growing number of visitors to Seal Beach, that keeps rising year after year.
If it is a revenue issue, parking meters will not solve the problem. We have paid Beach parking and time limit parking on the streets. The merchants on main street will be penalized by installing meters for a few dollars in revenue. The best solution is what we have taking place now, that serves everyone.
I hate visiting the neighboring cities because of the parking meters that have been installed over the years. We used to enjoy driving down to Laguna Beach for a few hours, but not no more. The exorbitant fees to park are no longer worth it.
And in my closing comment, why do we need to hire a consultant to tell us to install parking meters, when most If not all the folks I know don’t want them. How about spending some time addressing the ugliness of our alleys, polluted with all the old cables left behind by the phone companies and cable companies over the years. Is there not some form of responsibilities of these companies to maintain a responsible presence?
Just food for thought …
Sam Loya
Chaos is not charming
I lived right off Main Street for a decade, and I completely understand the concerns of traffic being pushed onto streets right off Main Street. What the city has done for residents in Old Town is to make one side of every street one hour parking , which residents still can use for all day parking with a resident pass.
I believe that for streets right next to Main Street, this should be expanded, maybe even making both sides of the streets one hour parking, except for residents with parking passes.
If Main Street is metered, it is definitely not going to lose any charm.
Chaos is not charming, and that’s what we have on Main Street now.
It’s nothing for cars to back up from the 100 block all the way to PCH, because people are blocking the street looking for those free parking spots.
We literally have people in fights over the free spots on Main Street and people throwing extremely dangerous illegal turns at high speeds to cut off oncoming traffic to get a free parking spot.
We’ve had people lose control of their cars, while making these dangerous turns.
I know of at least two buildings on Main Street that sustained substantial damage from cars jumping the curb and plowing into the front of their stores. I personally had an out of control car that had thrown one of these illegal turns, jump the curb and stop 1 foot in front of my plate glass window.
I was standing in the window area working on a client. We could’ve been killed. Having meters would eliminate this chaos by taking away the free parking spots that people fight over and make Main Street more charming, peaceful, and family friendly.
Also, the craziness of all the parking laws now, like you can only shop or dine for two hours and then you have to move your car 150 feet, should be totally eradicated along with all the chaos and craziness of the signs that go with these laws.
Two hours is not enough for somebody to shop and eat. I see people all the time get tickets for trying to patronize more than one of our businesses.
But isn’t it weird that I have never ever seen one of the beach people that leave their cars on Main Street for hours and hours get a ticket?
I know it’s just the luck of the draw, but it seems like it only falls against the people trying to support our town by shopping and dining.
People trying to support our town shouldn’t be limited on how long they’re spending money in our town.
There shouldn’t be a time limit on the meters.
If you have meters, it’s going to be too expensive for employees to park on Main Street and it makes no sense for beach people to park there when our beach lot is the cheapest around, so there’s no need to move people along anymore if you don’t need to worry about employees, or Beach people.
And please no kiosks. They are completely inefficient in a business area.
You don’t want people waiting in line for the kiosks, and the one thing these kiosks are good about is breaking down. My wife and I went to a Beach town on the Central Coast and they hadn’t even had the kiosks for a year and they were already broken down.
You want people to spend their time shopping and dining and to make that as comfortable and easy and efficient for them as possible, not spending their time hassling with kiosks, you need to use meters.
I have room on my property enough for my clients while they’re at my business, but many businesses don’t have that, and it really affects them being able to stay in business on Main Street.
As I’ve said so many times before, this is the last family oriented Main Street at the beach. We need to not just protect it from those who would take advantage of it. We need to nourish it and get rid of that chaos and make it more charming than it already is.
Woody Woodruff
