residents unfairly, and should be more fairly distributed to Hillside, Oakland, Highland, Craig, Mountain, Magnolia, Piedmont Ct, and the 200 blocks of Bonita and Hillside.
Michael Gardener in an email to fellow residents said the discussion of turning Bonita into a 1- way street is the most dangerous proposal he's seen in the city during his 30+ years of residency, and I have to agree.
A 1- way street with cars backing up into oncoming traffic, while students and parents are late to school is an extremely dangerous proposition. I've seen many near misses with children in the short time we've lived here; with the addition of people backing up from a diagonal spot into oncoming traffic will inevitably end with a child getting hit, if not one of our own children.
There has also been no discussion about how to manage 1 way traffic at the corner of Bonita and Oakland, which already backs up 8+ cars deep on a regular basis. Will you add a street light here?
We leave our house at about 8:35 every morning to take our children to preschool; we are late taking them to school every day because we have to wait until after the drop off period ends. When we return at just before 9am, there are many open parking spaces on Bonita and Oakland daily. There isn't necessarily a parking issue on Bonita, it's that people are late and feel the need to park within 1 block of where they're going, all at the same time. There are regularly spots available if you wait 15 min past peak times.
My understanding is that the drive for more parking is due to the new pool. Additionally, my understanding is there is a contract due to be awarded in May for restriping of parking and streets in the Civic Center. I formerly request that in addition to more fairly distributing the parking burden to the surrounding neighborhoods, that any discussion of changing Bonita to a 1 way street with diagonal parking be shelved until the 43 anticipated parking spaces along the pool/ Bonita block be reopened following construction, and parking be reevaluated after people have adjusted their habits. A rush to add this change just because a restriping contract is due is extremely short sided and potentially dangerous.
It is not an unreasonable request that city employees and teachers walk 1-3 blocks from their car to their workplace. We have 1 spot in front of our house and we never have parking available for our visitors or anyone to come visit or work on our house. We often walk 2-3 blocks ourselves to park in our own neighborhood; asking city employees and teachers to do the same is only fair.
Thank you for your consideration.
Marcia Lane
.
On Mon, Apr 21, 2025, 4:41 PM Patsie Kao <hellopatsie > wrote:
Dear Madam Mayor, Madam Vice Mayor, and City Council Members, In your discussion regarding Civic Center Parking, I wanted to bring to your attention the following:
The 300 block of Hillside Avenue has 36 unmarked parking spots. The only marked spots are for resident parking.
The 300 block of Bonita Avenue has 8 City Employee permit parking spots and 13 Permit A parking spots. There are 7 unmarked spots.
Please consider moving all 8 City Employee and 13 Permit A parking spots (a total of 21 spots) from the 300 block of Bonita to the 300 block of Hillside. That would still leave the 300 block of Hillside with 15 unmarked spots.
Doing the above will free up 21 spots on the 300 Block of Bonita to become 2 hour parking spots so that we won’t have visitors to the area take up parking spots all day.
No one should be allowed to hog a space in the Civic Center area all day. Yet, that is exactly what is happening now with City Employee parking spots.
As the posted signs say:
Resident parking is from 6 am to 9 am and 5 pm to 8 pm.
Permit A is from 7 am to 11 am.
City Employee permit is from 6 am to 5 pm.
Turning the 300 block of Bonita into a one-way street is making the residents of that block bear the brunt of the proposal under discussion and endangering their personal safety as well as that of the school children in one of the most congested blocks in town.
Thank you for your consideration,
Patsie Kao