Editor,
I wanted to respond to Michele Leighton’s complaint that Bluebird Park concert attendees removed “reserved parking blockades” that she had placed for her “late arriving guests” (“Concert Goers Leave an Unpleasant Impression,” Aug. 23, Letters.)
I don’t believe there is any provision in the law that allows a person to “reserve” a public parking space for their guests arriving at some unspecified later time. You certainly couldn’t go to the downtown parking structure and place cones in one of the parking spaces with a sign saying it’s reserved for your guests.
Yet you see it all over Laguna; residents trying to scare off people who are innocently and legally just trying to park their cars in city-approved spaces. One person on Reed St. has a scribbled, hand written sign on a stick that says “No Parking-For City Official Use Only” in front of their house. And it seems to work. No one was parked there when I walked by. So it’s okay to remove a valid, legal and much needed parking space from availability using trickery, deceit and intimidation?
I personally have endured dirty looks, nasty notes on my windshield and attempts to “park me in” so tight that I’m sure it’s meant to make me to think twice before I park there again. All this even as I take extra pains to park legally and courteously.
A word to both sides of the issue: parkers, be considerate and legal when parking in front of someone’s house. Residents, try to rein in your territorial instincts. You may own a home; you don’t own the city streets.
Tim Gaul, Laguna Beach
