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Old 02-11-2015, 03:03 PM
 
37 posts, read 59,007 times
Reputation: 47

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Don't get me wrong, I still like it here for the most part, but the parking-garage situation is one of this town's hidden everyday hassles.

Let's consider what visiting a typical grocery store looks like in 3 different places.

NYC: Walk (or bus/subway) to store. Go in. Buy stuff. Come out.

ORANGE COUNTY: Drive to store. Park in spacious parking lot. Go in. Buy stuff. Come out.

LA: Drive to store. Search for entrance to parking garage. Line up at entrance. Wait for everyone else to get ticket. Get your ticket. Inch through garage looking for parking. Stop and wait every time someone in front of you finds a space, while current occupant clears out. Repeat once you find a space. Search for entrance to store. Go in. Buy stuff. Validate ticket. Come out. Search for ticket machine. Search for car. Exit garage, waiting in line one more time to put your ticket in and open the gate.

Anyone else think this is aggravating? (silence) It's just me? OK then....
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Old 02-11-2015, 03:15 PM
 
1,963 posts, read 5,625,014 times
Reputation: 1648
have you ever tried shopping in SF with a car? at least we have parking structures!

The main problem is that you've chosen to live in LA's city core, not in outlying areas like the San Fernando Valley or San Gabriel Valley or even South Bay where parking is more ample. There are costs and benefits involved with every neighborhood and it's up to you to balance your priorities.
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Old 02-11-2015, 03:21 PM
 
Location: Pasadena, CA
10,078 posts, read 15,865,506 times
Reputation: 4049
Quote:
Originally Posted by smokingGun View Post
have you ever tried shopping in SF with a car? at least we have parking structures!

The main problem is that you've chosen to live in LA's city core, not in outlying areas like the San Fernando Valley or San Gabriel Valley or even South Bay where parking is more ample. There are costs and benefits involved with every neighborhood and it's up to you to balance your priorities.
Obviously Pasadena isn't really typical SGV, but I just walk to the grocery store (Trader Joe's, Pavilions and sometimes Whole Foods). And actually, it is because I agree with the OP, I hate parking garages. They bring out the worst in people.
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Old 02-11-2015, 04:37 PM
 
Location: West Hollywood, CA
1,238 posts, read 1,831,517 times
Reputation: 987
Of the 4 grocery stores I go to, Pavilions, Gelsons, Trader Joes, and Ralphs, Trader Joes is the only one that has a parking garage with tickets and validation. If you dislike grocery stores with difficult parking, you might consider driving a little further to find ones that have simple parking lots (like most of the grocery stores in LA do).

Though I definitely agree there are some frustrating lots/garages that can make shopping more of a hassle. The Ralphs in Westwood (that gate is always effing broken) and the Trader Joes on Santa Monica are two I loathe. But mostly the mall garages are annoying. The Westfield Century City garage is a dαmn maze, you can wind around forever looking for a spot at The Grove on a weekend, the Sherman Oaks Galleria used to be a crapshoot back when I lived in the valley, and the Beverly Connection parking structure is a real PITA now that Target is there.
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Old 02-11-2015, 05:06 PM
 
Location: West Hollywood
3,190 posts, read 3,186,992 times
Reputation: 5262
Quote:
Originally Posted by bpeeps View Post
Of the 4 grocery stores I go to, Pavilions, Gelsons, Trader Joes, and Ralphs, Trader Joes is the only one that has a parking garage with tickets and validation. If you dislike grocery stores with difficult parking, you might consider driving a little further to find ones that have simple parking lots (like most of the grocery stores in LA do).
This. The grocery stores in West Hollywood are mostly hassle-free.
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Old 02-11-2015, 05:12 PM
 
Location: La La Land
1,616 posts, read 2,491,518 times
Reputation: 2839
Quote:
Originally Posted by rs913 View Post
Don't get me wrong, I still like it here for the most part, but the parking-garage situation is one of this town's hidden everyday hassles.

Let's consider what visiting a typical grocery store looks like in 3 different places.

NYC: Walk (or bus/subway) to store. Go in. Buy stuff. Come out.

ORANGE COUNTY: Drive to store. Park in spacious parking lot. Go in. Buy stuff. Come out.

LA: Drive to store. Search for entrance to parking garage. Line up at entrance. Wait for everyone else to get ticket. Get your ticket. Inch through garage looking for parking. Stop and wait every time someone in front of you finds a space, while current occupant clears out. Repeat once you find a space. Search for entrance to store. Go in. Buy stuff. Validate ticket. Come out. Search for ticket machine. Search for car. Exit garage, waiting in line one more time to put your ticket in and open the gate.

Anyone else think this is aggravating? (silence) It's just me? OK then....
Ok, so what you describe is true in parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn or the Bronx. And where it is true the stores are tiny, crowded, poorly stocked and prices are higher than normal. In the rest of the five boroughs the parking is barely adequate, the spots are crowded ridiculously close and many of the stores are disgusting.

We shopped in West Hollywood, Hollywood, Los Feliz, Studio City, Manhattan Beach, and a few other places and the worst was the Gelson's in West Hollywood and that was an order of magnitude better than ANY supermarket in all of NYC.

We actually used a tape measure to measure the width of parking spaces between the lines, and found that the smallest space in LA we measured (West Hollywood Gelson's) was still 6 inches wider than the largest space in Queens that we measured. Give it a shot here now with the snow and ice accumulated in the parking lots!!

Some of our full sized local neighborhood supermarkets have only 40-50 spaces in their lots and many of them have other stores next to them.

Sorry, that is one of our pet peeves here in NYC, the absence of remotely adequate parking. Have you used a parking garage in Manhattan recently? Check out those prices if you want a cardiac episode.
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Old 02-11-2015, 05:24 PM
 
Location: West Hollywood, CA
490 posts, read 660,672 times
Reputation: 537
I never got how people buy heavy items in NYC for example, a case of water bottles or watermelon if you have to lug it along with all your other groceries a few blocks to your apartment.

I dread making more than one trip with grocery bags from the car trunk to my front door Lol. Lazy.
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Old 02-11-2015, 05:37 PM
 
Location: Pasadena, CA
10,078 posts, read 15,865,506 times
Reputation: 4049
Quote:
Originally Posted by IM90046 View Post
I never got how people buy heavy items in NYC for example, a case of water bottles or watermelon if you have to lug it along with all your other groceries a few blocks to your apartment.

I dread making more than one trip with grocery bags from the car trunk to my front door Lol. Lazy.
One time in Boston I carried an Xbox two or three miles from Target to my apartment. Of course that part of the neighborhood was about as walkable as your typical SFV neighborhood, it was not your most urban part of Boston.

Sometimes I see people outside the Target on Colorado with bulky and heavy items waiting to get on the 180/780 bus.
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Old 02-11-2015, 07:04 PM
 
Location: West Hollywood
3,190 posts, read 3,186,992 times
Reputation: 5262
Quote:
Originally Posted by IM90046 View Post
I never got how people buy heavy items in NYC for example, a case of water bottles or watermelon if you have to lug it along with all your other groceries a few blocks to your apartment.

I dread making more than one trip with grocery bags from the car trunk to my front door Lol. Lazy.
When I lived in NYC I would see people lugging those ready-to-assemble bookshelves, mattresses and things like that around town, on the bus, on the subway. Stuff that weighs 100 lbs and is awkward to carry across your living room, but they would lug it around and people would just have to get out of their way. That's why people in NYC with vans or trucks are the most valuable to have as friends.
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Old 02-11-2015, 07:09 PM
 
17,815 posts, read 25,648,684 times
Reputation: 36278
Quote:
Originally Posted by rs913 View Post
Don't get me wrong, I still like it here for the most part, but the parking-garage situation is one of this town's hidden everyday hassles.

Let's consider what visiting a typical grocery store looks like in 3 different places.

NYC: Walk (or bus/subway) to store. Go in. Buy stuff. Come out.

ORANGE COUNTY: Drive to store. Park in spacious parking lot. Go in. Buy stuff. Come out.

LA: Drive to store. Search for entrance to parking garage. Line up at entrance. Wait for everyone else to get ticket. Get your ticket. Inch through garage looking for parking. Stop and wait every time someone in front of you finds a space, while current occupant clears out. Repeat once you find a space. Search for entrance to store. Go in. Buy stuff. Validate ticket. Come out. Search for ticket machine. Search for car. Exit garage, waiting in line one more time to put your ticket in and open the gate.

Anyone else think this is aggravating? (silence) It's just me? OK then....
Where are you shopping that you need to do this? Plenty of places to shop in LA that don't involve any of this.
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