(Sent to Councilmember Mike Bonin)
I am the President of the Huntington Palisades Homeowners Association (HPPOC), a neighborhood in Pacific Palisades consisting of approximately 470 families. I have lived in Pacific Palisades since 1974 and in the Huntington neighborhood since 1978. At our August Board meeting, the HPPOC Board reviewed the proposed Parklet in front of the Garden Cafe and its impact. The HPPOC Board unanimously opposes the project and I write this to explain why we are so concerned.
I want to make it clear from the outset that (1) we view the Parklet Program itself as a good program with a laudable goal, (2) PRIDE has been a wonderful group that has done many terrific things in the Palisades and we support their efforts and energy, (3) the Garden Cafe is a favorite eating place for most of our neighborhood and we are intimately familiar with the proposed location because we drive by it several times every day of the week.
Because of our familiarity with the neighborhood and the La Cruz-Alma Real intersection, we are keenly aware of the dangers the proposed Parklet will present to our children and to all who frequent the Cafe. The Parklet will occupy a parking space at the center of a t-intersection where Alma Real dead ends into La Cruz. If a car traveled straight through from Alma Real, it would drive right into the restaurant. During the months that school is in session, it is perhaps the busiest intersection in the Palisades, and one of the most confusing. Directly across the street from the Parklet is the Village School and Seven Arrows Elementary School, just up Alma Real is Corpus Christi Elementary School, 50 yards down La Cruz is Palisades Elementary School. There is not a heavier concentration of elementary schools in one small area anywhere in Los Angeles.
The Garden Cafe has significant sidewalk seating and is an enjoyable meeting place: two large picnic tables that can each seat 10 or 12 people, three tables for four with umbrellas and two tables for two make it a congenial and pleasant place to gather and to eat. Because of its food and attractive location, it is a focal point for parents with their children before school, at lunch time, in the afternoon on the way to and from Palisades Park, which itself is only a block away. It is a very popular gathering place for Palisades High School students as well as students who live in the Palisades but who attend Loyola, Marymount, and Harvard Westlake Schools. I have been there many times when there are as many as thirty or forty young people there.
There is a stop sign almost totally obscured by a ficus tree just before the parking place where the Parklet would be located that is routinely ignored. Children and adults cross the street where there is no crosswalk. Teenagers are frequently not looking while they are calling out to friends and greeting their classmates. The large trucks delivering to the Ralphs Market across the street enter the loading dock off Alma Real and when they go through that intersection have to swing wide and barely miss any cars that happen to be parked in that space.
To interject a Parklet into this parking space in the middle of this extremely busy and heavily populated intersection poses a very serious risk that someone will be injured or killed. When that risk is weighed against the need for a Parklet on an already social street with plenty of sidewalk eating spaces, it should make the decision to reject the Parklet an easy one. There is simply no need for a Parklet there. It does not meet any of the objectives of the Parklet program. It is like carrying coals to Newscastle or bringing iceboxes to Eskimos. The Palisades is a very special and privileged community. This type of Parklet is not needed and should be in area where it will advance the purposes of the Parklet program.
We do not know what the politics are with respect to this and we understand that you have voted to support the Parklet program and this Parklet, in particular. We also know that you rely on organizations like PRIDE, who have done many good things, to provide you with information you need to make decisions. We know that the PPCC is concerned because, among other things, they were not consulted. They want traffic studies done and more information.
PRIDE and LADOT simply missed this one. There is no need for a traffic study or a lot of discussion. Anyone who lives in Pacific Palisades and who drives through that intersection and who has seen the huge crowds of people, particularly young people, congregating on the sidewalk and at the picnic tables, knows that if you had to pick the single worst place to put a Parklet in the entire Palisades, the t-intersection at Alma Real and La Cruz would be the place.
As a representative of the HPPOC, representing a large group of very concerned citizens, we urge you to revisit this decision and to withdraw your support for this particular Parklet based upon your now full understanding of the facts and potential dangers posed by that location.
I apologize for the length of this letter but the issue is important. Our opinions are strongly held and we sincerely hope you will take the time out of your busy schedule to consider our concerns and act accordingly.
Thanks again for your service to our community.
David T. Peterson, President HPPOC/ Mediator
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