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Residents call the signs that Caruso has put on street corners “placebo” because there seems to be no attempt to stop employees from parking on residential streets.

Residents Want their Neighborhood Back

By LOLA COFFEY

Alphabet Street residents (those nearest the Caruso Palisades Village development) have coined the phrase, “placebo effect” to describe the (unpermitted) signs that Caruso placed around the community, ostensibly to let employees of tenants know that that are prohibited from parking on the public streets.

However, there are no Caruso Village managers or security guards to enforce the rules and employees park throughout the Alphabet Streets and pour into the project for work each day.

Residents feel as if the signs are intended only to make them feel better–but are then left to police their own streets.

Recently, an Alphabet Street neighbor observed five employees in a single day parking on Embury and Fiske Streets and walking to work.

When the resident inquired about where they were employed, they all stated Porta Via.  Porta Via’s general manager was contacted, and he told the neighbor that “these were public streets, and he wasn’t going to tell his employees where to park.”

By contrast, when another neighbor reached out to Sephora about two employees parking on her street, the manager immediately dispatched the employees back to their car to move it to the parking garage–a rare victory for the impacted community.

Caruso charges each employee more than $100 per month to park on-site, an outlier in Pacific Palisades.  It’s no wonder that the clerk, waitress, hostess or dishwasher can’t afford to park in Caruso’s Palisades Village garage.

Obviously, Porta Via is not the only tenant that doesn’t address this problem, even though Caruso assured the community that all employees would be required to park in the Palisades Village garage.

Caruso signed an agreement on April 2016 and in return neighbors promised not to raise objections to the project with the City. The neighbors have kept their agreement, but Caruso has not.

The Agreement stated: (a) All tenant leases shall require tenants and employees to park in the underground on-site parking structure. Caruso will make reasonable efforts to make tenant vendors and contractors to also park in the underground on-site parking structure. All Caruso employees are to be required to park in the lot, free of charge to the employee. Caruso agrees that lease provisions regarding required parking shall be clearly set forth and there will be no penalty or cost imposed on employees who burden their employer-tenants with the costs of on-site parking. Caruso shall oversee compliance and enforce leases regarding any breaches of parking clauses. Caruso shall cause internal security staff to monitor any tenant-employee parking violators, who shall bring violations to the attention of Caruso management. Violations of the no-parking on residential streets by employees will be reported to the oversight committee and Caruso management for enforcement.)

Neighbors are asking, as the Alphabet Streets residents continue to suffer, and Caruso fails to enforce his agreement to park employees on-site, will the Community Council and Councilman Bonin do anything to help?

(Circling the News will stop at each of the stores this week to inquire about where employees park and report back.)

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