Free holiday parking in downtown Manhattan Beach extended to 4 weeks
For the first time since 2008, City Council decided Tuesday to allow free holiday parking in downtown Manhattan Beach for an entire month, from Nov. 26 to Dec. 26. With a 4-1 vote with Mayor Pro Tem David Lesser casting the dissenting vote, the majority of the council agreed that the extension from last year’s two-week period would make a great gift to the community in light of the centennial year. Councilmember Nick Tell, who pushed the motion to add two more weeks to the original request in the staff report, said now is the time to restore the long-standing tradition. “We eliminated it during our tough times,” Tell said, alluding to 2009 and 2010 when council voted against free public parking in downtown due to financial constraints. “Now that we have better economic straits, I think this would be a nice gift to the community.” The city incurs an estimated $44,000 revenue loss for each week of bagging meters in downtown—a total of $176,000 revenue loss for an entire month. The Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce and the Manhattan Beach Downtown Business Association brought the issue before council, asking that all on-street and off-street parking meters in downtown—with the…
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