By Cary Anderson
Re “Dear Community: Time to Stand up for Grace Lutheran”
It was interesting to read Michael Gotz’s letter. Somehow he thinks a “traditional community institution” should have rights over homeowners in a residential neighborhood. He seems upset that homeowners “… are afforded some (really stupid and selfish) legal rights…” Mr. Gotz doesn’t seem to realize that residential parking permit programs are a legal right not only in Culver City, but a lot of other Southern California cities.
Mr. Gotz stated, “If you think that the street belongs to the people whose houses abut it, then why should we pay taxes for their trash pick-up and street cleaning, just as a start, because we do help pay for them to have those services on their “private street.”
That is an interesting spin since the residents of Farragut Drive do directly pay for their own trash pick-up. It is a line item in their property tax bill.
Their taxes also pay to sweep the 50 feet of frontage of their Farragut Drive property. The street cleaning on Overland, Franklin and Farragut is way more than 50 feet for the “traditional community institution.” How much does the “traditional community institution” pay in property taxes? I have a $7,000 homeowner’s exemption on my property taxes. The “traditional community institution” has nearly $700,000 in exemptions. The “institution” pays half the property taxes that I pay.
The city required my neighbor to build a four-car garage. How many off-street parking spots was the “traditional community institution” required to have? The “traditional community institution” has a capacity of 440 people at once with zero off- street parking. How is that even fair?
I have a few questions for Mr. Gotz. Do you think your institution is special? Do you think you can trump legal rights that you called “really stupid and selfish”?
I know a lot of people who think they are special in the Downtown area.
People violate the Downtown neighborhood daily without being ticketed. I see them every day.
A few examples: The restaurant owner who used a yellow curb for his private parking spot. The three-minute allowed by ordinance for his non-commercial vehicle, was always stretched to six hours. He was special. He went for over six months without getting a ticket. He trespassed for months on School District property without being ticketed. Downtown employees daily take over non-permit streets. Before one Downtown street was awarded permits, they had 95 percent intrusion parking. Should that street give up its permits? Would you consider that selfish? A few weeks ago I called the Police Dept. to report three cars in a weekend no-parking towaway zone. In two hours, no one was towed or even ticketed. I have reported twice to police a vehicle that has parking pass with plate numbers on the pass that do not match the vehicles plates. No ticket for the vehicle even when it was illegally parked on a street sweeping day! I guess these people are special.
When a business owner can get parking meters turned off the day after they are installed, that is true power. The meters will be off for two years next month. When someone can park at a 30-minutes curb space all day for a year and a half without getting a ticket, that person is special.
Mr. Gotz said, “We do not need people in our town who impede the good works of others, who adhere only to principles of litigation and contention, who think they understand the laws because they can read word for word ordinances but really have no knowledge of the spirit of the laws and what they are used for.”
I guess Mr. Gotz wants Special Favors for Special People.
Mr. Anderson may be contacted at caryanderson@ca.rr.com