City Cruises Into Age of Parking Meters

Drivers vying for hard-to-find parking spaces in Old Pasadena and the Civic Center will be greeted by more than 1,000 parking meters by early summer, the Pasadena City Council decided Tuesday.

The parking meters, the first in the city’s history, will generate about $1.5 million each year. Parking will cost 25 cents for each 15 minutes.

The City Council voted unanimously to approve the project, which will use about $650,000 from 1992 equipment bonds and $156,000 borrowed from the city sewer fund to cover start-up costs.

Initially, receipts from the meters in Civic Center will be used to create angled parking in Centennial Square, west of City Hall, and to improve library parking. Funds from Old Pasadena meters will go toward increased police protection, parking garage renovation and a street and alleyway improvement program adopted last June for the burgeoning retail area.

“We’re asking our customers--those people that eat and shop in Old Pasadena--to dig into their pocketbooks, pull out quarters and put them in the meters,” Mayor Rick Cole said. “But they ought to get something for that in increased security and amenities.”

Council members said the meters, which will allow a maximum of two hours of parking, will prevent employees from using parking spaces that should be reserved for customers.

Meters will be installed in Old Pasadena in the area roughly bounded on the east by Arroyo Parkway, from Corson Street to Green Street, and Raymond Avenue, from Green Street to Del Mar Boulevard; on the west by Pasadena Avenue, from Valley Street to Union Street, and Fair Oaks Boulevard, from Union Street to Corson Street; on the north by Corson Street, and on the south by Del Mar Boulevard and Valley Street. They will also be placed on the Union Street, Colorado Boulevard and Green Street bridges over the Foothill Freeway (710).

In the Civic Center, meters will be installed in the area bounded by Corson Street on the north, Arroyo Parkway on the west, Colorado Boulevard on the south and Los Robles Avenue on the east.

The Old Pasadena meters will be in force seven days a week. Payment will be required only Monday through Friday for the meters in Civic Center and the freeway bridges.

Increased security and better ambience in Old Pasadena will bring in more customers, Cole said, which will bring in more sales tax revenue. Most merchants attending the meeting agreed.

“What we’re trying to avoid is turning this area into another Westwood, which has had growing crime and inadequate parking,” said Dan Melinkoff, a member of the Old Pasadena Business and Professional Assn.

But Dick Wood, of Wood and Jones Printers, objected. “I understand the pressure of the dollar, but . . . I hate to see Pasadena become more average.”