Editor,
In response to the letter writers who are concerned about losing parking in their neighborhoods due to the EDPC (“You Can’t Park There”, Letters, Feb. 10 edition), let us say, you have good reason to be concerned. In 2012, one of our neighbors who live on Bluebird Canyon complained to the Parking & Transportation Committee about parking on upper Bluebird. Other neighbors, who didn’t like the cars from illegal tenants parked in front of their homes, jumped on the bandwagon under the guise of “safety issues”.
The result was that the PTC banned all parking on upper Bluebird with the exception of existing legal pullouts. People were no longer allowed to park in front of their own homes, so they now park in front of our home and those of our neighbors’ on Morningside Drive.
When you prohibit parking on a street or in a neighborhood, the cars that previously parked there don’t magically disappear into garages and driveways. They go to another street or neighborhood and that’s what we live with.
Because of the parking ban on upper Bluebird , Morningside Drive has been turned into a parking lot with six to 10 cars parked in front of our homes at all times. We always had overflow parking here, but now these cars are parked here on a daily basis. Add to the mix the gardeners, visitors, house cleaners, caregivers, contractors, etc. and you can imagine the noise and unsightliness.
The parking situation has created a huge noise nuisance as well as an extremely dangerous driving condition with cars continually parked on a blind curve where Morningside and Bluebird intersect. This formerly quiet neighborhood has become a cacophony of noise from cars parking, doors slamming, cars being remotely locked, etc. and it goes on all hours of day and night. One tenant has his friends “visit” at 1 a.m. many nights, park here with music blasting, drinking in the car and urinating in our yard. Recently, our car, parked in front of our home, was broken into.
In upper Bluebird, we have had incidents where emergency vehicles were able to access homes with no problem. There has never been a bad accident on upper Bluebird. Yet, these were the arguments that allowed all parking to be taken away in this neighborhood. There has to be a balance between emergency access and degradation of neighborhoods.
The neighborhood where we purchased a home exists no more. In its place is the “Morningside Parking Lot”. Be careful where this goes, because someone will be the victim.
Rosanne and Bill Beam, Laguna Beach
