The City finally posted enforcement hours below the three, new 10-minute parking loading zone (LZ) spaces placed on Coast Highway in early June.
Don’t thank me.
We locals owe a large debt to our Laguna-based media who indirectly “nudged” the City and thus “encouraged” them to at minimum affix the “9 a.m. to 6 p.m.” sign below the LZ postings via publishing my recent column.
The Fourth Estate is at times our public pillory because unfortunately we’ve become a complaint-driven society exacerbated by deaf governance.
The also new no vehicle access, use Coast Highway signs show that irony didn’t die on Sept. 11, 2001: The City permanently eliminated three of our historically year-round unrestricted Coast Highway parking spaces, a questionable taking, in an existing, seriously “under-parked” area, yet inscrutably directs them to park on Coast Highway.
Hello? Is there anybody in there?
I still don’t see anyone picking up or dropping off visitors at the three new Coast Highway LZs located at McCauley, Sunset and upper Victoria Drive.
As I predicted, everyone has gone back to the lower intersections of Dumond and Victoria Drive (near the underpass) and/or the top of the stairs at Sunset and Victoria Drive, now that construction is over.
And off-season, visitations plummeting, who in their right mind believes these LZs will even be used at all until next peak season?
Achieving this hours of enforcement addition only took them more than 10 weeks of constant haranguing by yours truly and media saturation. That’s flank speed for a bureaucracy. A minor, Pyrrhic victory regardless.
The City should exhibit flexibility for residents and visitors alike: (A) Paint the curbs green instead of white, and (B) Only put up the enforcement signs on the stanchions on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, take them down after Labor Day. Is that asking a lot, two to three hours of low-level staff time per year?
Except for Dizz’s immediate vicinity, the inland Coast Highway parking is dangerous for drivers getting in and out of their cars.
Who wants to bet that the City’s next smooth move won’t entail installing parking meters on both sides of Coast Highway from Moss Street down to the Montage, adding insult to injury?
Roger Butow, Laguna Beach
