.png)
Parking spaces are hard to come by along a stretch of Monterey Road, a South Pasadena resident insisted as part of public comment during last week’s virtual City Council meeting.
In a letter read by the deputy city clerk, Christian Muro told the council in “the past year, prior to March 13, 2020 but worse since, the parking along Monterey Road between our driveway at 314 and the apartment building to the east of us (334 Monterey Road) has increased dramatically.”
It would not be a problem if the street were straight, noted Muro in his correspondence, “but it is not.”
He points out Monterey Road makes “a sweeping parabolic arc from Indiana Avenue until it reaches the intersection at Pasadena Avenue. Not only does the arc make it difficult to see, but cars parking in front of 334 block all view of the road. To make matters worse Monterey Road declines steeply towards the intersection so traffic is often moving at near highway speeds of 40 to 50 miles per hour.”
South Pasadena Police officials are looking into the situation. Muro calls it a safety issue, as there are 24 families that reside in the apartment 314 Monterey Road. “Many of the families have teenage drivers,” he said. “Some have more than one teen driver.”
Muro wrote that the City of South Pasadena was notified of this problem “and the response was to paint a red parking restriction zone of 8 feet to the East and West of the driveway at 314 Monterey Road,” he said in his message. “The trouble is that a vehicle traveling at 40 miles per hour takes 80 feet, NOT 8 feet, to reach a full stop. We the residents of 314 Monterey Road must pull out into a completely blind curve, we cannot see the oncoming traffic. They cannot see us. Someone is going to get hurt. On the opposite side of the street at 699 Monterey Road there is a similar curve and the City of South Pasadena has painted at least 75 feet of red curb to restrict parking so that churchgoers do not have to exit their church driveway blindly.”
Residents in the area, noted Muro, are requesting a similar red zone from the fire hydrant East of 334 to the driveway at 314 Monterey Road. “We would like to point out that this will sacrifice exactly zero parking spaces since the curb West of our driveway is unrestricted and is never used for parking,” he wrote. “There is well over 100 feet of unused parking space West of the driveway.”
Parking on the street is not an issue for the other apartment buildings, expressed Muro, because “they all have access to their buildings from the back alley. Unfortunately, we, the residents of 314 Monterey Road, do not have a building entrance in the alley.
