Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Laguna Beach maps parking plan for day labor site
May 14th, 2008, 4:30 pm · 1 Comment · posted by Amy Taxin
Here’s the latest filing from Laguna Beach by the Register’s Christa Woodall:
Laguna Beach City Manager Ken Frank said today that workers at Laguna Beach’s day labor center will be allowed to park in a nearby city-owned lot for free.
The Act V lot, which opened last summer, sits a few hundred yards up the canyon from the hotly contested site. Frank said he met with the state’s Caltrans director in Sacramento, who expressed concern about workers running across Laguna Canyon Road from where they now park. To fix that, workers will be able to park in the lot for free during morning hours. The going rate to park in the lot is $10 a day.
Day laborers are not the only ones who can park in Act V for free, Frank said. Groups like Laguna College of Art & Design have used it to park guests for events in the past, and groups that charter city buses like Annaliese’s School also park there. “If somebody wanted to park out there and carpool into town, we wouldn’t charge them either,” he said.
E Garcia Says:
May 15th, 2008 at 12:41 am
Ken Frank has announced he will allow the day laborers to park in the Act V lot for FREE!
Parking problems and cost have been the number one issue for Laguna Beach in surveys year after year. I don’t get to park for free, you don’t get to park for free, the tourists don’t get to park for free, the beachgoers don’t, the art festival patrons don’t. Why do the day laborers?
Ken Frank states here that he will allow them to park for free in the “mornings”. Is free parking going to be restricted to just the mornings? So, what happens when one of the guys gets work for the day and doesn’t return until the evening to get his car? Does it get towed? Ticketed? What? And if he is allowed to park there for the day does that mean everyone gets to park for free?
Can beach goers park there the entire day for free? That would be a great deal! Park for FREE, jump on the FREE trolley bus that takes you to the beach. Don’t worry about getting up to feed the meters every few hours. Stay the entire day, jump back on the FREE trolley and pick up your car.
What is going to happen when the art festivals open and the tourists have to mingle with the day laborers or the day laborers begin to loiter around the tourist’s cars? Will Ken Frank then section off a special area just for the day laborers? Maybe with velvet ropes or something? Kinda like the way he spent $10,000 of our city tax dollars to install that drinking fountain at the day labor site.
I’m sure the ACLU will be notified and there will be a debate as to whether it is legal to allow a select group of people (those that Ken Frank approves of) to park for free. I have a feeling the Act V parking lot will have to be turned into a “Free For All” lot.
And of course opening that lot up for free parking will take away one of the city’s revenue generating tools. Is protecting day laborers (most who are in the country illegally) and encouraging illegal hiring THAT important to Ken Frank and the city of Laguna Beach?
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