When parking meter rates in downtown San Pedro quadrupled two years ago to $1 an hour, Scott Gray’s maritime crafts and book business plunged 25 percent and within six months had fallen by two-thirds.
His business has yet to recover.
“People visit us once and then never come back because of the parking,” he said.
Gray, who owns Maritime Research Center on Seventh Street, and fellow merchants have persuaded Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who represents the area, to try to pull down several thousand parking meters in downtown San Pedro and nearby downtown Wilmington.
Hahn last week said that she has tried several other strategies to boost business in those areas – including free parking on evenings and weekends, and during a two-week stretch before the Christmas holiday – all to little effect.
“This is the last resort after I’ve tried about 10 things to turn this area around,” she said.
The City Council has asked the Department of Transportation to report back within 30 days on the feasibility of removing the meters; the proposal could come back to the council for a final vote later this summer.
The call to remove parking meters represents the latest effort by Hahn and other city officials to help the struggling central business districts of San Pedro and Wilmington. The two shopping areas near the Port of Los Angeles have been stuck in a long-term decline as residents have flocked to nearby malls and chain stores.
A few years back, San Pedro boosters had begun to reverse the tide, heavily promoting the local arts scene and backing mixed-use projects to bring residents into downtown. But the recession hammered the region. Some stores have shuttered, others have fewer and fewer sales.
The parking meter rate increase was part of the 2008 city budget. Hahn voted for the budget, which doubled or quadrupled rates throughout much of the city. In San Pedro and Wilmington, rates rose from 25 cents an hour to $1; in other areas of Los Angeles, the rates are now as high as $2 per hour. The budget also extended the metered hours well into the evening, with varying times in different parts of the city. In San Pedro, hours were extended to 9 p.m.
The backlash from merchants when the rates took effect in 2009 was immediate. Hahn quickly introduced a motion to roll back meter hours to 6 p.m. in San Pedro and Wilmington. She also helped set up a free-parking period for two weeks before Christmas and reduced the price for monthly parking permits for store employees.
But the problem persisted.
“The complaints started coming in after the quadrupling of the rates and they haven’t let up since,” said Dan Hoffman, executive director of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce.
Matters got worse because the city’s Department of Transportation took a more aggressive approach to parking meter enforcement.
“People would come into our store and shop, and when they get back to their car after an hour, they see a $70 ticket on their window,” said John Foto, owner of Wilmington’s Santa Fe Seconds store, which sells discount and used goods. “Once they get a ticket, many don’t ever come back.”
Foto said the aggressive enforcement has prompted him to remind his customers constantly to make sure they have enough money in the meter and that they get back five minutes before their time is set to expire to make sure they don’t get a ticket.
He said the meters in Wilmington have not been upgraded to accept credit or debit cards, so customers often have to ask him for change when they come into his store, then run back out to feed the meter.
“Needless to say, all this does not exactly build customer loyalty,” he said.
Increasing turnover
The parking meters in question were first installed decades ago in San Pedro, Wilmington and many other areas of the city with the goal of allowing more turnover in parking for customers. The city of Los Angeles collects the meter money, which pays for parking improvements, including the installation of parking meters that accept credit and debit cards.
But in San Pedro and Wilmington, the number of people using the parking meters has dropped so dramatically since the 2009 rate increase that Hahn said that the citywide parking revenue fund is subsidizing the maintenance and operation of the parking meters in the two neighborhoods.
The meters, she said, should be transferred to other parts of the city where they would generate revenue instead of diminish it.
The proposal has won widespread support in the business communities in both San Pedro and Wilmington.
San Pedro Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Camilla Townsend said that removing the parking meters would complement some of the other recent initiatives to bring more shoppers into the downtown area. Local merchants established a business improvement district two years ago to spruce up sidewalks. Also, two trolley lines are planned this summer to connect the Ports of Call shopping center and the cruise terminals with the downtown shopping area.
“We’re a little community trying to survive, and removing the parking meters, as long as it’s done properly, would help in that effort,” Townsend said.
Parking hogs
But the meters and the rate hikes have some merchant-friendly aspects, too. Alison Shaw-Koth, co-owner of Off the Vine at Sixth Street and Pacific Avenue in San Pedro, said that when the parking meter rates were 25 cents an hour, employees in the second-story offices above her shop were parking in the spaces all day, going out every two hours to put 50 cents in the meter.
“When the parking meter rates went up, those employees parked elsewhere and more people were able to park in front of my store,” she said. “My business actually increased.”
But Shaw-Koth, who owns the wine store with her husband, said that if the city does remove the meters, it must strictly enforce the two-hour time limit.
Hahn said she expects the it to be enforced.
“The Department of Transportation has been quite aggressive in enforcement in the San Pedro area, so I don’t see much of a problem there with cars remaining beyond two hours,” she said. “If it does become a problem, we’ll deal with it more forcefully.”
