Pretty Harsh, Zankou Chicken

Actually, it's not Zankou Chicken at all, but the strip mall next door taking on Zankou's hungry customers in West L.A. Enjoy your garlic sauce.

The Most Confusing Los Angeles Parking Signs Yet

Spotted on Wilshire Boulevard. I dare you to figure out how and when to park here. (I managed to, having found this spot at 7:30 p.m. on a Wednesday -- and left without a ticket!)

Warning: Westfield Century City Starts Charging For Parking On...

As we wrote in October, the days of free parking at the Westfield Century City mall are about to end. And now it's official: According to a sign spotted today at the mall, effective February 1, you're going to pay for the luxury of parking.

And it won't be cheap. According to the sign, the parking will cost you $1 PER HOUR for the first three hours -- and then $1 PER 15 MINUTES after that. (In other words, stay 3 hours for $3, then get out.) Looks like the theater will validate (and apparently Gelson's too, although it's not clear for how long). But other than that, you're screwed.

But hey, if you spend $250 in a single day, Westfield will kindly give you free parking for the day. THANK YOU WESTFIELD.

The End of Free Parking at the Century City Mall

[Flickr pic by Seaside Signs.]
Every once in a while I forget the parking card to my Century City office, which is why the free three-hour parking at the Westfield Century City mall comes in handy. Well, that emergency option is about to get expensive: According to Westwood-Century City Patch, that free parking is about to end:

The Westfield Century City mall has the green light to eliminate its three-hour free parking policy and start charging customers to use what is currently the only free parking structure in Century City.

The Los Angeles Planning Commission gave Westfield its stamp of approval in August but it is now up to the mall to decide when to begin charging patrons. It could be as soon as fall of 2013, coinciding with completion of 500 new parking spaces, but the company has not set a date, Westfield spokesperson Katy Dickey said.

The mall has offered free parking since 1988, according to the Planning Commission report. Under the new plan, the shopping center will no longer need to provide three hours of validated free parking to patrons, nor will restaurant and food court lessees be required to advertise a validated parking policy.

The parking fees have not yet been set, Dickey said.

"Everybody likes free stuff, but we believe that [prices are] going to be consistent with and comparable to similar centers in similarly dense areas," she said.

Things are falling apart at the Westfield Century City mall -- a good 50% of the mall's food court has shut down in recent months due to escalating rents, including major chains like Baja Fresh.

So Wait, Can I Park Here?

Spotted in Century City: Just don't even try to park here.

Give This Parking Enforcement Vehicle A Ticket

Is this legal? Sure doesn't seem like it. And if it is, it shouldn't be. Where's Parking Enforcement when you need it? Oh.

Thanks to L. Paul Strait for passing along these pics. He writes: "Do you know if this is legal? Either way I thought readers of your blog might be interested in seeing these pictures."

If any of you know, please let us know!

The Days of Parking for Free at a Busted Meter Are Ending

This past Sunday in downtown, we took advantage of a little-known parking tip: It's OK to park at yellow "loading zone" spots after 6 p.m. and all day Sunday.

Pretty handy. And it may come in even more handy now that L.A. is putting a stop to free parking at busted meters.

Sigh -- it's true. As LAist reports, LADOT is putting stickers up on new meters, warning motorists to either pay through multiple means -- or find another spot. Couple that with the number of pay stations that are replacing meters around town, and the days of scoring a free meter may soon be over.

LAist writes:

f the coin slot is jammed, pay with a credit card. If the credit card swipe won't register, pay with coins. If both don't work, too bad, find another space.

"If you are unable to pay using either the credit/debit card function or cash, you need to move to another parking space," explained LADOT spokesperson Bruce Gillman. "We recommend people call the number on the meter, or simply 311, to report any problems."

The new policy is partly to discourage intentional vandalism that some people have done in the past to park for free.

At least we still have you, Yellow Loading Zone.

Finally, Clarity for Broken Meters

It's one of the questions that Angelenos probably ponder the most: Are we going to get a ticket for parking at that FAIL parking meter?

Apparently the answer has been "yes" -- particularly for drivers whose meter automatically re-sets back to normal while they're parked there.

But as the L.A. Times reports, tickets aren't supposed to be handed out at a broken meter:

Between 10% and 12% of the city's meters are failing at any given time, according to a recent study by an outside firm.

Amir Sedadi, assistant general manager of the Transportation Department, assured city council members that "the policy of the Department of Transportation is not to issue any citations to broken meters." But in some instances, Sedadi said, broken meters can inexplicably snap back into operation, which could be why some Angelenos have been ticketed.

Last fiscal year, the city issued 550,000 tickets for expired meters. Of those expired meter tickets, 2% were contested, and about 40% of the complaints were deemed to be valid, transportation officials said.

As meters get more expensive, I find that it's also tougher to find enough change to feed the damn thing. That will gradually change as more meters come equipped with a credit card reader.

In the meantime, I wonder this: Do the parking meter folks peek under the bags people stick over failed meters? Or do they take it on faith? Because if that's the case, then I guess I should always have a spare bag in the car.

Who Polices the Parking Enforcers?

Discarted is rightfully a tad annoyed to find their friendly neighborhood parking enforcement officer using a loading zone in a middle of the day to grab lunch. They write:

Case in point: this video, taken this past week in East Hollywood, where our dogged local parking enforcement officer uses the loading zone as a parking spot for her lunch break. This is the same parking officer who tirelessly drives up and down our neighborhood blocks all day long, looking for cars on the wrong side of the street on street cleaning days and in red zones and with expired meters.

Somewhere we missed it in the Los Angeles city code where parking enforcement officers don’t need to obey the law. Wow, what a job perk!

It's not just there; a commenter writes: "They routinely park in 3-minute passenger loading zones on Hope St. between 7th-8th streets downtown while they workout at the Bally’s Gym inside Macy’s Plaza. on their lunch hour, i guess."

Park(ing) Day LA Returns Today

Hundreds of parking spots will morph into impromptu micro-parks today, as the second Park(ing) Day LA gets underway.

Parking spots -- with meters constantly fed -- will be filled with plants and other items up and down Wilshire, among other spots.

The goal? To remind the city that Los Angeles "significantly lacks adequate & accessible open space, urban parks, plazas and civic centers":

While the recent development of such parks as the LA Historic State Park, Rio de Los Angeles State Park, Baldwin Hills Conservancy & Audubon Center at Debs Park are enthusiastically applauded, Park[ing] Day LA hopes to further celebrate the momentum of providing additional parks & open space throughout Los Angeles – especially as it relates to smaller, more infill opportunities to enhance the public realm with the benefit of recreation, landscape, habitat and opportunities to cool the City with increased canopy coverage.

Check out the event's blog here.

One L.A. Attraction Slowly Disappears; One L.A. Eyesore Is Slowly Dismantled

(Pic credit: Los Angeles Times)

The Los Angeles Times reports that the ugly parking lot off of 1st and Olive -- you know the one, it's that terrible structure you park in when you go downtown for jury duty -- is finally going away.

When it was built, the Times notes, city leaders complained -- and were promised that it was a temporary parking fix. That was nearly 40 years ago:

Even before it opened in 1969, the "Erector set" parking lot at the corner of 1st and Olive streets downtown was one of Los Angeles' most reviled structures.

Richard G. Mitchell, head of the Community Redevelopment Agency, complained that it was just another monolith of concrete, asphalt and steel atop Bunker Hill. The mass of girders and slabs, perched atop what look like stilts, "fights you," Mitchell said. He predicted it would have a "depressing effect" on downtown.

Robert Bolling, president of the Southern California chapter of the American Institute of Architects, agreed, warning that the structure would have a "deleterious effect on the fabric of the city."

At the time, the 1,062-car structure's saving grace was that it was temporary. Planners promised the "portable parking structure" would be dismantled and moved somewhere else, replaced by a more fitting form of architecture.

(Pic credit: Los Angeles Times)

Meanwhile, the Times also digs into the mystery of the disappearing Echo Park lotus plants. As everyone has noticed in recent years, the plants -- which inspired the park's annual Lotus Festival -- have been dying off at an alarming rate. The paper writes:

Only 30 blossoms appeared in 2007, down from hundreds the year before. Park employees blamed cold weather and drought. When the lotuses bloomed too late for the 2006 festival, cool winter and an extra-hot June were considered the culprits. When the 2004 blooms came early, some cited an extra-hot May.

The lotuses' recent strange behavior remains a mystery, park staff told the Echo Park Advisory Board at its regular meeting Tuesday.

"No one can give you a rational scientific explanation," said board member Isa-Kae Meksin. And their condition this year? "It's too early to tell," Meksin said. The underwater plants don't send up new green shoots until late April or May.

The lotus problem is unrelated to the 13 turtles found dead at the park last year, said Stephen Moe, the park department's water manager.

The lake is scheduled to be drained and cleaned in 2010; park officials hope the removal of contaminants in the water might lead to healthier, more plentiful plants.

An Early Christmas Present from the City of Los Angeles

Ahh, L.A., you shouldn't have!

I mean, seriously, L.A. You shouldn't have. C'mon, it was a Friday evening, 5:30 p.m., and the meter had run out just three or four minutes earlier. As I walked out, thinking I still had a minute left, I ran into Officer Flowers, typing my license plate into the car.

I tried to win him over with kindness. Didn't work. He handed me the ticket. "Hey, Merry Christmas to you," I said, as he handed it back to me. He opted not to humor my sarcasm. "Same to you," he exclaimed.

Ugh.

He then went to work on the car behind me. Coincidentally, that car owner also popped out of the building just as Officer Flowers was computing the ticket.



Here he is, handing the ticket to the car owner, who was not amused. Ho ho ho!