🎥 WeHo neighbors unite to fight loss of parking for bike lanes

Several dozen WeHo residents came out to Plummer Park on Sunday to protest the impending loss of parking spots on Gardner and East Side streets to accommodate protected bicycle lanes.

Gardner residents like Chris and Tania were completely blindsided to learn what was coming.

“We found out, quite randomly, by seeing a group of angry neighbors standing on the corner, that they’re about to remove all of our parking spaces,” Chris said. “Parking in our area is already insane. We already double-park on top of our own spaces legally as a courtesy to the rest of the neighborhood to try to keep those spots for the people who live there.” 

Like many in the neighborhood, both Chris, a music producer, and Tania, a makeup artist for film and TV, depend on the spots for themselves and for their clients. 

@wehoonline These Gardner Street residents are furious their parking spots are being sacrificed for bike lanes in #weho ♬ original sound – WehoOnline

“We have 10 units in our building and we only have five parking places,” Tania said. “So if we lost our spaces, we would be fighting over more public spaces. I would have to park farther away. I carry a lot of gear when I go on set, so it would definitely impact going to work for me. And it’s just going to create a lot of tension when you come home, trying to find a place all of a sudden when I had a dedicated one that’s just going to be gone.”

Worst of all, they say the city has never advised them of the project. 

“I’ve lived here 12 years, some people have lived here for 30, 40 years who don’t even know what’s happening,” Chris said.

City staff reluctantly admitted they hadn’t let neighbors know about the loss of parking when City Council was deliberating the project at their March 18 meeting. Still, Mayor John M. Erickson, Vice Mayor Chelsea Byers and Councilmember Sepi Shyne decided to proceed with the plans.

“I do not want to compromise on cyclist safety for motorist convenience. Period,” Byers said, rejecting an option that would have kept the parking spots. “I am happily in favor of inconveniencing motorists and I’ll say that all day if it promotes the safety of cyclists.”

Cathy Blaivis was one of the organizers of Sunday afternoon’s meeting.

“Losing 22 parking spaces on a street, regardless of their statistics, is constantly over-parked, meaning it’s not just the parking spaces, it’s the spaces behind the driveways,” said Blaivis, who emphasized that the meeting was not meant to determine whether the bike lanes were a good idea. “(The city) did not do their due diligence.”

@wehoonline♬ original sound – WehoOnline

@wehoonline♬ original sound – WehoOnline

Councilmember Lauren Meister, the only councilmember to attend the meeting, agreed that outreach had been insufficient, and she encouraged the neighbors to voice their opposition as loudly as they can. She noted that the new streetscape project approach to Fountain Avenue would be a more holistic approach than the originally conceived bike lane pilot project, which would have cost 150 parking spaces. 

She lamented the attitude toward the project among her colleagues and in City Hall.

“They’re all talking as if this was a done deal and it is not a done deal,” Meister said. “But we need your voices and we need you to be very involved from this point forward because they don’t listen to me, you know, they’ll not listen to an individual councilmember.”

Follow the money, she said, pointing to the influence of special interest groups over some of her colleagues — groups such as the West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition.

@wehoonline♬ original sound WehoOnline

“I love the Coalition,” Meister said. “They took me on a bike ride. I thought I was going to die on Fountain. I totally understand the issues, but they are a strong coalition for, really in the scheme of things, very few stakeholders that are actually using these roads.”

Kevin Burton, representing the coalition, was on hand to try to assuage the crowd’s fears about the bike lanes and loss of parking — but his words were met with deep skepticism.

Burton suggested restricted permit parking as a solution to the problem, a proposal neighbors promptly shot down.