La Jolla Board Meets to Discuss Thorny Issue of Parking Meters

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published March 19, 2008 at 12:37 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

La Jolla's Parking Advisory Board meets this afternoon to discuss ways to tackle the long standing problem of how to manage parking in the upscale beach community. KPBS reporter Alison St John has mor

La Jolla's Parking Advisory Board meets this afternoon to discuss ways to tackle the long standing problem of how to manage parking in the upscale beach community. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Parking in La Jolla has been a problem for decades. Most residents are adamantly opposed to putting parking meters in their city, but businesses complain the lack of available parking is affecting their bottom line.

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Today's meeting of the city's Parking Advisory Board is likely to draw big crowds. The group may consider various proposals and then make a recommendation to forward to the full San Diego city council.

La Jolla residents have collected more than 5,000 signatures to oppose any plan to even start a pilot project of parking meters on certain streets. They say meters will force small businesses out of downtown, and change the character of their community.

Meanwhile, questions have arisen about possible conflicts of interest and whether some members of the advisory board could benefit financially if meters are put in.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.