Residents in Los Angeles’ Echo Park neighborhood are fed up with hordes of delivery drivers clogging up their residential street while waiting for orders from a ghost kitchen adjacent to their homes, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Echo Park Eats, a ghost kitchen that serves as a hub for app-based food delivery services, opened on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Douglas Street in 2023 and quickly became a problem for people living on the street.
The business, which rents space to 26 separate food vendors and is led by a co-founder of Uber Technologies, has 11 other kitchens in L.A. County, the outlet reported.
Sandy Romero, a resident on Douglas Street, spoke to The Times and said the crush of delivery drivers, many of whom idle in the red zones and double park, are taking up the already precious little parking on the street.
“The first day that they opened business, it was chaotic, unorganized and it’s just such a nuisance now,” she told the outlet.
Another resident told The Times that last summer, the mostly male delivery drivers would bring their own chairs and snacks while waiting for their orders under a shade tree in front of his home, often leaving trash behind.
Eventually, he cut off the branches creating the shade and the drivers moved to another location on the street.
There is also the smell, some neighbors said.
Erika Torres, who has lived on the street for decades, told the outlet that she’s not only tired of the crowds of delivery drivers, but also the ever-present smell of the ghost kitchen’s food in her home.
There have been, according to The Times, measures taken to fix the issue, like instituting permit parking on the street and sending out additional parking patrol officers, one of whom was reportedly the victim of an assault while trying to enforce the laws on the street.
The business itself tried to limit parking on its lot to five minutes, but residents told the outlet that it only caused the drivers to idle on the street for longer or park their mopeds on the sidewalks.
One of the issues appears to be that Echo Park Eats is considered a catering business, permitting it to run its operation near the residential street.
Hugo-Soto Martinez, the L.A. City Councilmember who represents the district, acknowledged the serious problem in an interview with The Times and said he’s actively working on several different approaches to help residents get their street back.
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