By Sam Catanzaro
Last month an open house was held to discuss parking meters coming to Abbot Kinney Boulevard. Now Councilmember Mike Bonin has made a surprising announcement regarding parking on this iconic Venice street.
Last month, Yo! Venice reported that the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) would be installing 196 parking meters on Abbot Kinney Boulevard. On February 5, however, Councilmember Mike Bonin announced that meters will no longer be installed.
“Based on your feedback, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation will not be installing additional parking meters on Abbot Kinney Boulevard,” Bonin wrote in a letter to Venice residents and stakeholders.
Mike Foth, an Abbot Kinney business owner and resident, told Yo! Venice that parking meters on the boulevard would negatively impact his business, 421 Media.
“I understand the reason for the meters, of course, is to a) generate revenue and b) increase turnover with which is supposed to help business with their clientel to have the option to park on the street, however, unfortunately, it seems as no provisions have been made for employees that work at all these businesses that are on Abbot Kinney, to where we are basically losing all of our side, street parking,” Foth said regarding the previous plan for meters.
LADOT’s revised plans for street now includes marking 203 parking spaces along Abbot Kinney, installing parking sensors to collect real-time parking data and guide motorists to available spaces with smartphone apps, standardizing posted parking time limits at 2 hours between 8 AM and 8 PM and adding a series of motorcycle parking spaces.
In addition, LADOT will be installing nine new parking corrals for dockless scooters and e-bikes reorganizing passenger and commercial loading zones to allow traffic to flow more smoothly on the street.
