Post Office Parking Spaces to Be Restored

After weeks of listening to complaints from citizens, city officials have agreed to restore 10 parking spaces that were removed from in front of the Van Nuys Civic Center post office for security reasons, City Councilman Marvin Braude said Monday.

“They promised me it would be done in the next week or two,” said Braude, who asked Department of Transportation officials to restore the nine 30-minute metered spaces and one handicapped space after his office received dozens of phone calls from post office patrons angered by their removal.

In July, the Department of Transportation removed the spaces and painted the curb red at the urging of an official with the General Services Administration, the federal agency responsible for management of federal buildings. In addition to the post office, the four-story federal building at 6230 Van Nuys Blvd. houses offices of the Internal Revenue Service and other government agencies.

Curtis Phelps, an assistant field office manager with the GSA, said in the letter that the parking area posed “a serious security breach.”

Braude and other officials, however, said public inconvenience in the congested Civic Center area outweighed the security threat.

“After the Oklahoma City bombing, I do understand their concerns for safety,” Braude said of federal officials.

“But the Department of Transportation agreed that a red curb would not be a detriment to a bomber. You just can’t check it every 30 seconds.”

Braude also said that a parking structure located at the rear of the building posed a greater threat than the metered area.

“I’m glad they’re going to put the spaces back,” said Michael Walker of the Van Nuys Community Action Group, which initiated a campaign to restore the parking area. “The community really needs them.”