When garages go, the streets fill up

I read your article on the garage conversion (“That Old Garage, Retooled,” Sept. 16) with ambivalence. I used to get a sense of peace when I turned in to my neighborhood, with its tree-lined streets flanked by beautiful lawns. It gave me a sense of serenity before I even opened my front door.

Now as people are converting their garages (and not putting in carports), using the area for storage, or adding more cars to the family, I must navigate between oncoming and parked cars.

The drive through my neighborhood has become part of the hectic commute, and I don’t escape it until I get inside my home. I miss the serenity of the neighborhood. Maybe I will convert my garage into a meditation room.

Anne Simoneau

Long Beach

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Your article just added a few hundred or thousand more cars to the “street parking garages.” In Venice there are dozens of converted garages, done without permits because there is not enough space on the lot to build another one. This contributes to the lack of parking. It invites street parking and the use of garages for illegal conversions, for space- and money-generating purposes.

Herman Wurz

Venice