Dear Santa Cruz Friends and Neighbors,
• Tomorrow, Tuesday 3/14/23, at 2:00 PM, this issue will be heard by the Santa Cruz City Council. Please forward this Petition right now to elicit more signatures of friends and neighbors a.s.a.p. We must demonstrate Santa Cruz Opposition to Arbitrary and Inequitable Parking Removal on Laurel St. and Support for the Appeal of the Laurel St. Parking Eradication Plan that will be heard tomorrow--Tuesday, 3-14-23.
• City Departments Acting at Incompatible Cross Purposes: Planning & Development versus Transportation & Public Works (TPWC)
- One arm of the City (Planning & Dev't) is hastily adding housing density with nearby high-rises that severely skimp on parking and pleas for more ADU's that no longer require parking (& UCSC's solicitation of residents to take in more students desperate for housing) to meet housing mandates.
- Meanwhile, the TPWC simultaneously is eliminating existing parking around our City rather than first prioritizing essential intra-City and inter-City public transportation and public safety, first (before targeting car owners).
- The result is City Planners are building rampantly without providing adequate parking and the TPWC is removing existing parking before either having adequately provided for the essential public transportation as well as public safety needs that would make any of their efforts functional.
• The TPWC is Putting the Cart Before the Horse (& mishandling priorities):
- Currently, this high-density neighborhood needs more parking not less!
- Here (and elsewhere around Santa Cruz (e.g., Bay Street all the way from UCSC to West Cliff Dr.) the TPWC is claiming to allegedly, effectively meet GHG emission mandates by removing parking to allegedly and convolutedly discourage driving or to allegedly protect bicyclists at the expense of local residents' fundamental needs, rather than by first focusing on providing essential intra-city and inter-city public transportation alternatives for all, as well as adequate Public Safety (e.g., with essential street night lighting, lighted, well-marked and maintained crosswalks, and crime prevention (e.g., remotely parked car vandalism, break-ins, catalytic converter, bicycle, and other thefts, etc.). In other words: ***Don't eradicate essential parking until you've provided adequate public transportation and public safety first!***
- Not everyone can ride a bicycle but everyone needs safe, equitable, accessible, effective public transportation and access to their own homes and all of their travel destinations, and public safety, first.
• The Daily Safety of Women and Equitable Accessibility of Disabled, Elderly, young Families & All Residents is Being Sacrificed Unjustly! Many deeply concerned women were represented in public comments against Laurel Street Parking Elimination at the only (last minute) TPWC Hearing and emails solicited on the matter (at least 41 women from Laurel St.). Women inhabit at least half of this neighborhood, if not more than two thirds of the neighborhood-
Males: 651; Females: 1,337 [Ref. https://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/Neary-Lagoon-Santa-Cruz-CA.html
• Many women's daily safety and residents' daily, equitable home and car accessibility and protection are being sacrificed allegedly for 2.5 bicycle accidents per year--that clearly can be solved in other ways.
• Disabled and elderly people spoke out too, as well as residents that rightfully do not want to park their cars out of view of their homes when the City has been unable to provide adequate protection of property in this area. Reports of car vandalism; break-ins; catalytic converter, bicycle, package delivery, and other thefts are reported constantly. Check out the neighborhood "Nextdoor" site.
• Much touted 2.5 bicycle accidents per year simply should not take precedent over the safety of at least 12 people every day --easy prey parking after dark and having to walk any distance in abandoned, unprotected streets to their homes; and all those needing equitable home accessibility as well as protection of their vehicles currently subject to crimes regularly in this area.
Moving 12 vital parking spaces off of Laurel St., and claiming 8 of them will be replaced a block or more away around the corner--still diminishes the safety of those a) whose parking isn't replaced, and b) those that must park in that more remote location alone, after dark, in abandoned streets as easy prey. And the equitable accessibility of parking every day for all the people that cannot park in front of their own homes, and their guests, is still at issue.
Residents reasonably require immediately adjacent parking to carry groceries, furniture, and other packages into their homes, receive deliveries, entertain guests safely, carry babies and young children to and from their cars, receive home services such as housecleaning, carpet-cleaning, and landscaping that require transportation of equipment, etc.
• Please forward this Petition now to elicit more support now: https://chng.it/wpCJLzg5Tr
Thank you!