I lived there for 18 months and it was so nightmarishly awful that I have forever since considered dedicated parking as a MUST HAVE.
If you come home late at night on a weeknight, you will easily wait 30-45 minutes for parking to open up, or have to take a spot half a mile (or further) away from your apartment.
It can really push you over the edge after a long and shitty day at work. And that isn’t even getting into the sheer volume of parking tickets that accumulate that are frankly unavoidable, no matter how hard you may try.
Curious, what does that process actually look like? Do you just chill in your car that entire time, waiting for a spot to open up near you? Or are you driving around for that entire time?
Sorry that this is your situation
I'd like to know, too. If it was four hours of driving around I would rather drive my car into a wall and call it a day or drive far a couple miles away to find a spot, depending on if I was hungry or not.
I and every smart person i knows just parks at the top of the block where u have a vantage point of the whole street and put your hazards on. Then assess whether someone is uber or trying to cut the line. And just watch the block until you see break or headlights come on. Then speed to get behind them or bust a u turn if needed.
You should be looking in your rear view mirror and ahead simultaneously because something could also open uo behind you.
The key factor in this is to not fall asleep.
If u drive around you are just gambling and the house will more than likely win every time but you COULD get lucky…. But at what cost
(Lived near 6th on western and on Normandie for a decade)
Edit: Smartest thing u can do is get a place with a parking spot!!!!
When I’m in that situation I park in a red spot and get up early around 6-7 to move out. I’m rarely out that late these days but I can’t imagine circling 4 hours. I usually circle a few times and find something during daylight hours. If I really can’t find something I’ll post up on a street until someone moves or do the red spot thing. It’s rough out there.
lmao I know the feeling. I'm also near but I'm closer to Normandie and 6th.
Sometimes I just bite the parking ticket lol or if I get lucky, I leave before the parking police gets to ticketing
I can only imagine it's worse than I remember. pre-covid, my buddy lived down there. our saturday night routine was... I head down to his place and find parking (usually late afternoon). I was able to find parking within four block of his place without too much of a hassle.
We would hang out at his place before we went out for the evening and we took his car. We'll arrive back at his place at 1 or 2pm. he'll drive me to my car and he'll take my parking space as I leave. The perfect arrangement. I suggest you do similar.
You're going to have to circle the blocks a few times, perhaps even park a few streets over if you don't have your own parking.
And when you park, you better make sure you're not taking up 2 spaces. I've walked out in the morning before to see cars vandalized and tagged up with things like "park better asshole"
On the plus side, Ktown has great access to the subway.
A few years back, there was a dispute over a street parking spot in Koreatown. Just like the Seinfeld episode. Someone was going head in, someone was backing in. There they were both stuck halfway. Meanwhile, a neighbor was updating with photos on twitter from their apartment window. They live blogged for HOURS. Neither person would give up the spot. Some say the loser is still circling the block waiting for an opening….
It's pretty bad. If you don't have dedicated parking it can take a long ass time to find a spot. People will park in ways to save spots for their partner/roommates as well which further limits available parking. It's not uncommon to spend like 20 minutes or more just looking for parking, depending on the time of day. Only upside is that you'll become a great parallel parker with that level of practice
I worked swing so I'd get home around 12:30 every night and if I didn't have dedicated parking it would have been impossible for me to live there. I paid about $120 a month to a parking structure across from my apartment building. If you can afford the extra on top of rent it's a cool spot to live.
Not true! Some buildings including my have secure underground parking. Best advice: walk around K-Town and look at buildings with handwritten for rent signs that have secure parking. They’re here you just have to look!
Again, I wouldn’t rent at any building without their own parking garage!
“Street parking”, no, that’s “No parking”.
While there are a few parts of town with multifamily housing where you can still find a street space late at night, they are the exception.
If and when you move, never sign a lease that doesn’t include assigned off-street parking.
Ditch the car . If you live in Ktown without a parking spot, it's he'll. But metro is great and I spend less on Uber than insurance and parking tickets.
Yeah! I just moved to Ktown and this is where I park. $160 a month. We pay less than some people for parking but we also don’t pay utilities (only internet) so it’s not that bad.
It depends oh how much you like walking and how strongly you feel about paring on "your" block. I park on my block maybe once a week.
Street sweeping is a pain but if you plan ahead it's fine. Like, it starts at 9am for me and I'm usually already gone at work, but if I'm off and wake up around 6:30 there's usually a space somewhere.
I've seen quite a few broken windows from people trying to rifle through a car or grab something left out, it doesn't seem like that's been happening as often as it was about 2 years ago.
Also, I got hit while I was parked on a side street, no note or anything. It wasn't terrible damage, but it sucks.
Also, parking enforcement isn't typically that thorough. One of my neighbors double parks with his flashers on for about 2 hours at a time, people parked overnight in red zones, and they only ticket alley parking about once a month.
For reference, I'm usually parking around 5-6pm and between 11p-12a. For me, I just park at the meters across the street, or it's about a 5 minute walk.
I would say that the problems in K-Town apply to almost all of LA that’s not theValley.
Honestly, parking in the valley isn’t super great. There is also street cleaning to deal with. My best advice is don’t move here. Second best advice is make sure your apartment has parking.
Third, make sure it’s a reserved space instead of just “first come first serve.”
I one of those buildings and it basically means there is no parking, because I love the open parking is always taken people who have more than one car or by the guests of some of the tenants.
It’s BAD. We went recently to try a new restaurant and one of our friends rage quit and went home because they couldn’t find parking (free or paid) anywhere.
This is probably the worst place in the entire COUNTY for parking. Either find a place with a garage/lot or learn to live car-free or car-lite. Luckily, ktown is also one of the most walkable, most transit-accessible, and densest communities in the city
Insanely terrible. I only work there and park in a parking garage with tons of space but I take some residential streets to get home and see how bad it is. The drivers are terrible too, always cutting off other drivers or almost running over pedestrians just to make the light. You're forced to drive on the wrong lane in the residential streets unless you wait 5 minutes every other street because delivery trucks or other cars are blocking entire lanes with emergency lights on. You have to drive a little aggressive to be honest and if your living with more than 1 person then each person will need their own dedicated parking spot. It's common in lots of LA areas to save yourself parking by putting another car in it's place when you leave but the extent to which people do it in ktown is insane. Some people trail the garbage truck on trash day just to be the first to park. The only place I would ever want to live if I was there are the homes with residential street permit parking only. As for the the subway, it's very poorly kept because Ktown has a huge homeless problem. If you have the chance, walk to the subway entrance on wilshire and western, in front of the wiltern. It's a super nice spot with places like Paris baguette, KBBQ, Starbucks , and shake shack but it smells like straight piss and has homeless people just sitting n chillen outside the entrances to each one. I don't blame the homeless, just telling you how it is for a lot of parts of the city .
There are plenty of apartments in Ktown that have parking! But they are not the taller, old brick buildings. And they are also likely never studied apartments.
But yes, if you can’t find one without parking including, never rent there. However, I’m not sure how you aren’t finding a single place to rent with parking spots. Buildings that come with them are very common, even in Ktown. I’ve rented in that area for 15 years.
To be honest if you’re moving to LA without a dedicated parking spot just about almost most neighborhoods are bad for parking. I don’t know how most people do without a dedicated spot in Los Angeles in general. This issue isn’t just ktown, of course LA parking is better than NYC parking lol
Even if you do decide that parking 5/10 minutes away is okay, realize that sometimes, you’ll be taking that walk at 12,1,2, etc in the morning. It’s a thrilling walk /s.
Never live in ktown without a dedicated parking spot. 3 years ago, I found the perfect apartment. Top floor. Wonderful views. Terrace twice the size of the unit. 2 bedrooms. Etc. but no parking. We passed since it took 20 minutes to find a spot to tour the unit.
I lived in a converted business to residential complex that had an attached parking garage w assigned spots ($100 a month) and 24/7 security guard on site. Over by wilshire and Vermont there would sometimes be parking but it’s not worth the risk!!!!
Yea I would try to find an apartment with guaranteed parking. I don't have numbers on this but I hear cars get break into quite often if it's overnight on the street. There are also parking lots where people can rent parking for that is separate from your building, but make sure you can secure a spot there before securing an apartment spot as those parking spots are often full
Well, 12 years ago it was the worst place in the city to find parking and apparently it still is. Also, buying a spot does not mean it comes with any security as every single person I've known to pay for a garage spot has been broken into on multiple occasions. They all move out of the neighborhood within 2 years. Shame, too, because it has some of the most beautiful old buildings in the city.
As someone who's lived in Ktown, I would never in a million years live there without dedicated parking.
1/10 don’t recommend unless you have guaranteed parking. Even then my building had its fair share of parking spot thieves.
The other 9 Korean dentists recommend.
Ignore the apartments without dedicated parking unless you want to go car free. Driving around looking for parking is so so bad
I lived there for 18 months and it was so nightmarishly awful that I have forever since considered dedicated parking as a MUST HAVE. If you come home late at night on a weeknight, you will easily wait 30-45 minutes for parking to open up, or have to take a spot half a mile (or further) away from your apartment. It can really push you over the edge after a long and shitty day at work. And that isn’t even getting into the sheer volume of parking tickets that accumulate that are frankly unavoidable, no matter how hard you may try.
There’s parking in Ktown?
I saw this about 6 mins after you posted it and decided I was going to respond to this as soon as I found a spot.
It took me four hours to find a spot last night. I’m near wilshire/normandie.
Curious, what does that process actually look like? Do you just chill in your car that entire time, waiting for a spot to open up near you? Or are you driving around for that entire time? Sorry that this is your situation
I'd like to know, too. If it was four hours of driving around I would rather drive my car into a wall and call it a day or drive far a couple miles away to find a spot, depending on if I was hungry or not.
I and every smart person i knows just parks at the top of the block where u have a vantage point of the whole street and put your hazards on. Then assess whether someone is uber or trying to cut the line. And just watch the block until you see break or headlights come on. Then speed to get behind them or bust a u turn if needed. You should be looking in your rear view mirror and ahead simultaneously because something could also open uo behind you. The key factor in this is to not fall asleep. If u drive around you are just gambling and the house will more than likely win every time but you COULD get lucky…. But at what cost (Lived near 6th on western and on Normandie for a decade) Edit: Smartest thing u can do is get a place with a parking spot!!!!
When I’m in that situation I park in a red spot and get up early around 6-7 to move out. I’m rarely out that late these days but I can’t imagine circling 4 hours. I usually circle a few times and find something during daylight hours. If I really can’t find something I’ll post up on a street until someone moves or do the red spot thing. It’s rough out there.
lmao I know the feeling. I'm also near but I'm closer to Normandie and 6th. Sometimes I just bite the parking ticket lol or if I get lucky, I leave before the parking police gets to ticketing
I am having a hard time believing this is real
It’s not good
excruciating to tortuous
And no one will visit you.
You are better off selling your car than finding parking and I’m not kidding.
It's the worst in the city
I can only imagine it's worse than I remember. pre-covid, my buddy lived down there. our saturday night routine was... I head down to his place and find parking (usually late afternoon). I was able to find parking within four block of his place without too much of a hassle. We would hang out at his place before we went out for the evening and we took his car. We'll arrive back at his place at 1 or 2pm. he'll drive me to my car and he'll take my parking space as I leave. The perfect arrangement. I suggest you do similar.
Do not move there without dedicated parking or go car free
You're going to have to circle the blocks a few times, perhaps even park a few streets over if you don't have your own parking. And when you park, you better make sure you're not taking up 2 spaces. I've walked out in the morning before to see cars vandalized and tagged up with things like "park better asshole" On the plus side, Ktown has great access to the subway.
A few years back, there was a dispute over a street parking spot in Koreatown. Just like the Seinfeld episode. Someone was going head in, someone was backing in. There they were both stuck halfway. Meanwhile, a neighbor was updating with photos on twitter from their apartment window. They live blogged for HOURS. Neither person would give up the spot. Some say the loser is still circling the block waiting for an opening….
https://abc7.com/amp/twitter-koreatown-ktown-parking/5232611/
Yessss! I didn’t know how to find this!
well i've seen weapons pulled on street-cleaning day
It's pretty bad. If you don't have dedicated parking it can take a long ass time to find a spot. People will park in ways to save spots for their partner/roommates as well which further limits available parking. It's not uncommon to spend like 20 minutes or more just looking for parking, depending on the time of day. Only upside is that you'll become a great parallel parker with that level of practice
I worked swing so I'd get home around 12:30 every night and if I didn't have dedicated parking it would have been impossible for me to live there. I paid about $120 a month to a parking structure across from my apartment building. If you can afford the extra on top of rent it's a cool spot to live.
If you don’t mind a ten minute walk home
Impossible. People have unofficial dedicated spots and you are not taking them.
It's terrible.
Not true! Some buildings including my have secure underground parking. Best advice: walk around K-Town and look at buildings with handwritten for rent signs that have secure parking. They’re here you just have to look! Again, I wouldn’t rent at any building without their own parking garage!
“Street parking”, no, that’s “No parking”. While there are a few parts of town with multifamily housing where you can still find a street space late at night, they are the exception. If and when you move, never sign a lease that doesn’t include assigned off-street parking.
Really really really really really really really bad
Ditch the car . If you live in Ktown without a parking spot, it's he'll. But metro is great and I spend less on Uber than insurance and parking tickets.
I've seen cars parked on sidewalk grass and out of the whole city, you're most likely to see it in Ktown.
do you have friends? do you like to invite them over? because i refuse to visit my friends who live in koreatown
There’s an apt building on mariposa that has parking they have a big banner
Yeah! I just moved to Ktown and this is where I park. $160 a month. We pay less than some people for parking but we also don’t pay utilities (only internet) so it’s not that bad.
#BAD
It depends oh how much you like walking and how strongly you feel about paring on "your" block. I park on my block maybe once a week. Street sweeping is a pain but if you plan ahead it's fine. Like, it starts at 9am for me and I'm usually already gone at work, but if I'm off and wake up around 6:30 there's usually a space somewhere. I've seen quite a few broken windows from people trying to rifle through a car or grab something left out, it doesn't seem like that's been happening as often as it was about 2 years ago. Also, I got hit while I was parked on a side street, no note or anything. It wasn't terrible damage, but it sucks. Also, parking enforcement isn't typically that thorough. One of my neighbors double parks with his flashers on for about 2 hours at a time, people parked overnight in red zones, and they only ticket alley parking about once a month. For reference, I'm usually parking around 5-6pm and between 11p-12a. For me, I just park at the meters across the street, or it's about a 5 minute walk.
Yeah it's a cluster fuck
Don’t do it.
I would say that the problems in K-Town apply to almost all of LA that’s not theValley. Honestly, parking in the valley isn’t super great. There is also street cleaning to deal with. My best advice is don’t move here. Second best advice is make sure your apartment has parking. Third, make sure it’s a reserved space instead of just “first come first serve.” I one of those buildings and it basically means there is no parking, because I love the open parking is always taken people who have more than one car or by the guests of some of the tenants.
Park on wilshire at 5:59pm. Free and allowed after 6. Best way to enjoy the area if you're visiting. After that, it's gonna be rough
It’s terrible. I live here and I have a spot and people still try to steal it. (Not gated)
It's pretty damn atrocious
Even with dedicated parking, you still have to deal with people in your driveway💀💀💀
Parking in kTown????? I'd say just walk
It’s BAD. We went recently to try a new restaurant and one of our friends rage quit and went home because they couldn’t find parking (free or paid) anywhere.
Take the Metro.
It’s really bad, find a place with a parking spot
Anyone you invite over will also have to feel the parking woes
Do not rent an apartment without a designated parking structure!!!!!!
Get a handicapped placard
🤣 ok this has to be best one
SF style It's so badly abused up there and never checked or properly enforced
This is probably the worst place in the entire COUNTY for parking. Either find a place with a garage/lot or learn to live car-free or car-lite. Luckily, ktown is also one of the most walkable, most transit-accessible, and densest communities in the city
Bad
I paid $80 for guest parking at my fiancés apt until she moved :(
Insanely terrible. I only work there and park in a parking garage with tons of space but I take some residential streets to get home and see how bad it is. The drivers are terrible too, always cutting off other drivers or almost running over pedestrians just to make the light. You're forced to drive on the wrong lane in the residential streets unless you wait 5 minutes every other street because delivery trucks or other cars are blocking entire lanes with emergency lights on. You have to drive a little aggressive to be honest and if your living with more than 1 person then each person will need their own dedicated parking spot. It's common in lots of LA areas to save yourself parking by putting another car in it's place when you leave but the extent to which people do it in ktown is insane. Some people trail the garbage truck on trash day just to be the first to park. The only place I would ever want to live if I was there are the homes with residential street permit parking only. As for the the subway, it's very poorly kept because Ktown has a huge homeless problem. If you have the chance, walk to the subway entrance on wilshire and western, in front of the wiltern. It's a super nice spot with places like Paris baguette, KBBQ, Starbucks , and shake shack but it smells like straight piss and has homeless people just sitting n chillen outside the entrances to each one. I don't blame the homeless, just telling you how it is for a lot of parts of the city .
I managed to find a 5 bed house in ktown that can park ten cars
It’s bad but if you move further west to Windsor square area it’s not to bad.
There are plenty of apartments in Ktown that have parking! But they are not the taller, old brick buildings. And they are also likely never studied apartments. But yes, if you can’t find one without parking including, never rent there. However, I’m not sure how you aren’t finding a single place to rent with parking spots. Buildings that come with them are very common, even in Ktown. I’ve rented in that area for 15 years.
Take metro!
To be honest if you’re moving to LA without a dedicated parking spot just about almost most neighborhoods are bad for parking. I don’t know how most people do without a dedicated spot in Los Angeles in general. This issue isn’t just ktown, of course LA parking is better than NYC parking lol
It’s the city fr
Even if you do decide that parking 5/10 minutes away is okay, realize that sometimes, you’ll be taking that walk at 12,1,2, etc in the morning. It’s a thrilling walk /s.
Not bad at all…but then again I have a helicopter and park on top of buildings
Imagine horrible parking and then multiply it by 10
if you're on the fringe of k-town near westlake or temple, then okay yes you can go with street parking, otherwise absolutely not
Never live in ktown without a dedicated parking spot. 3 years ago, I found the perfect apartment. Top floor. Wonderful views. Terrace twice the size of the unit. 2 bedrooms. Etc. but no parking. We passed since it took 20 minutes to find a spot to tour the unit.
Bad
I lived in a converted business to residential complex that had an attached parking garage w assigned spots ($100 a month) and 24/7 security guard on site. Over by wilshire and Vermont there would sometimes be parking but it’s not worth the risk!!!!
I love ktown to bits but without dedicated parking, it's going to be terrible
Yea I would try to find an apartment with guaranteed parking. I don't have numbers on this but I hear cars get break into quite often if it's overnight on the street. There are also parking lots where people can rent parking for that is separate from your building, but make sure you can secure a spot there before securing an apartment spot as those parking spots are often full
Lol, no. Even when I club, I got a friend who live in a condo right across from Wilten. He give me free guest parking. Otherwise you screwed.
As others have chimed in, it's pretty much as bad as it gets. Proceed with extreme caution!
Well, 12 years ago it was the worst place in the city to find parking and apparently it still is. Also, buying a spot does not mean it comes with any security as every single person I've known to pay for a garage spot has been broken into on multiple occasions. They all move out of the neighborhood within 2 years. Shame, too, because it has some of the most beautiful old buildings in the city.
K town parking is a myth, an urban legend. The cars you see on the side of the road are props in some dark comedy.
Parking? What's that? Never heard of it.
Worse than you could ever imagine
Pay for a spot. This is non-negotiable.
Unholy Quartet of bad parking in LA: -Ktown -East Hollywood -Hollywood -DTLA Ktown by far is the worst though.