Health & Fitness
The Petty Politics of the Parking Commissioners
Jim Wieboldt, Lynn McCrea and Gina Franklin rebuffed my motion to discuss 5 isolated meters hurting four La Mesa businesses.
In February, a business owner on the 8501–8513 block of La Mesa Boulevard brought to my attention the presence of parking meters in front of his store but nowhere else for blocks.
I drove La Mesa Boulevard and noted the meters end just east of Mario’s Mexican Restaurant on La Mesa Blvd., start again on just one side of the street at 8501 La Mesa Blvd, go for about 960 very expensive inches, stop, not to be repeated anywhere else on the boulevard. This block is far outside the Village.
This business owner maintains these meters are an unfair burden to his business and to his patrons and that he's paid countless parking tickets for his customers. He describes being singled out for meters as discriminatory. Checking out the 100 or so businesses around him with no meters, I agree.
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I spoke with adjacent merchants and they seem to be of the same mind as their neighbor: The meters are unfair and should be replaced with 2-hour, non-metered parking.
Additionally, improvements paid for by meter money, like the new street signs, don’t make it all the way to their stores. Their signs are still the old ones. So they pay but don’t get to play.
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Seeing a legitimate problem, I promised I'd bring it up at May’s parking commission meeting for placement on June's agenda. I didn't promise the commissioners would agree with the business owners but at least we could open a dialogue.
Or so I thought.
At the Parking Commission Meeting on Tuesday, May 17, I presented the points above and handed out the attached map. I then made a motion to put a discussion of these five meters on June’s agenda and was promptly squelched by the three parking commissioners present: Jim Wieboldt, Lynn McCrea and Gina Franklin. This issue died on the spot.
Go visit Michael Collins Fine Jewelers, DG Salon, Marcella June’s Coffee Lounge and La Mesa Barber. Not only are they outstanding businesses, you will see for yourself that beside the five solitary meters in front of their stores, there isn’t one other meter visible as far as the eye can see.
Just don’t forget your quarters.
Note: Laura Lothian is a member of the La Mesa Parking Commission
