Who’s Painting Over the Red Curbs on Colfax?

There’s a mystery among the more than 600 residents of Studio Village along Colfax Avenue near the new Colfax Bridge.

At least three times since the bridge reopened, the red lines painted on the curb by the city to prevent cars from parking near the exits of the Studio Village complex have been repainted over to gray again—overnight!

It’s dangerous, too, because when a car is parked in the repainted zone, it’s impossible to pull out of the complex without pulling far into the bike path lane.

“There are near-misses here every day,” said Sidney Mandell, who has lived in the condominium complex for 10 years and is a member of the homeowners association board. “It’s only a matter of time that someone is seriously injured or killed.”

After appealing to City Councilman Paul Krekorian’s office and the city coming out to paint the curbs three times, the no-parking lines were painted over again within a matter of hours.

Manager of Studio Village, Nancy Brown, said, “We believe it is someone in the neighborhood who wants to be able to park on the street. It’s a game that someone is playing. The trouble is, this is a particularly dangerous spot.”

Painting over the curb is against the law, and ironically, most of the time people are painting curbs red so that people won’t park there. Los Angeles Police Senior Lead Officer for Studio City, Mike Lewis, said, “If a suspect paints over a curb it's going to be a vandalism. Obviously, we have to prove who did this, either by witnesses, video or he/she is caught in the act.”

Studio City Patch contacted managers at neighboring apartment complexes and none of them knew of anyone claiming to paint over the curbs.

Recently walking her dog Bocher in front of the complex, Beth Greenburg said, “Not a day goes by that there isn’t a near accident here. Something needs to be done.”

At least one car was totaled pulling out of the complex in the driveway on Colfax Avenue between Ventura Boulevard and Moorpark. Mandell said many of the residents drive to other exits in the complex to specifically avoid the dangerous exit. Of course, that only generates more traffic within the complex.

“It appears that the city no longer wants to respond,” Mandell said. “Now it is an incredibly dangerous situation.”

Brown, the manager, said a simple solution would be to put up a "No Parking" sign at the curb.

Studio Village is on a site once owned by Republic Pictures chief Herbert John Yates, who gave the land to the community to build three Little League fields. It's where coaches included football star Frank Gifford and Heisman Trophy winner Glenn Davis and actor Mark Harmon was the team's bat boy. In the late 1970's the land was developed into Studio Village. 

Mandell said, “I am very disappointed in Paul Krekorian’s office. He can count on about 600 or so less votes from Studio Village.”

(See the update and a response from Krekorian's office: ) 

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