The Chicken and Egg Story – Park[ing] Day L.A.-- Park Poor, But Parking Rich
Los Angeles is one of the most park poor but parking rich cities in the country. Endowed with a Mediterranean climate, and mountains and ocean that span the region, what often passes for open space in areas like downtown L.A., are large open air parking lots. It is not only that parking lots, wide streets, and rows of parking metered parking spaces are unattractive; they also have major impacts on quality of life and the environment by contributing to beach and ocean pollution, raising the temperature on already hot days, and increasing housing costs due to parking requirements imposed on developers.
The large landuse footprint created by surface parking is
also a problem. Parking eats up huge
amounts of land that could instead be open space and public plazas, including
parks. Parking narrows and even eliminates sidewalks. It provides a huge
subsidy for our car culture, particularly with the vast amount of free or
minimal cost parking. With free or subsidized parking considered a birthright,
Fortunately, Los Angeles also has a growing parks movement, a rapidly increasing number of bicycle and pedestrian advocacy groups, organizations advocating for a more Livable Los Angeles, and a mayor who says he wants to make Los Angeles the greenest city in the country.
Park[ing] Day L.A. is a chance to begin reinventing L.A.as a place where cars and parking no longer dominate the city’s open space. Today, dozens of groups across Los Angeles are participating in Park[ing] Day L.A by transforming parking spaces into parks.
The Urban & Environmental Policy Institute’s ‘park for a
day’ has a theme of “Re-inventing L.A.: a Chicken and Egg Story.” This
chicken/egg message refers to the dilemma we face in moving past a
car-dominated city:
Ø How can more people use alternative forms of transportation when L.A. does not yet have world class trains, buses, bike lanes or pedestrian amenities?
Ø At the same time, how can the city invest money
and dedicate space to public transportation and bike lanes if people have the
expectation of free and cheap parking, and there are so many cars on the road, that
traffic mitigation concerns outweigh the demand for additional buses?
Park[ing] Day L.A. is a chance to raise these questions and to think about how we can make the first steps towards change. Join us to discuss solutions- steps we can take individually, and policies we can adopt collectively, to get more parks, a greener city, and a saner transportation system.
More info on Park[ing] Day | Click here to find a Park[ing] spot in greater Los Angeles
Join UEPI on Park[ing] Day at 2106 Colorado Blvd, 90041 from 10am-6pm.
Comments