Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Tue, Dec 28 2004
Biting The Hand That Feeds The Meter
Every now and then a story something like this pops up in some town that has insufficient parking. Usually the magical meter-feeders are costumed area residents who enjoy brightening someone's day. In this particular case the meters were being fed by local merchants who didn't want to see their shoppers get a ticket during the holiday season.
One might suppose, in an era of increasingly tight city budgets, that the additional money placed in parking meters would be a welcome addition to the local economy. But some towns favor local ordinances forbidding this sort of thing. If the statistics from the San Luis Obispo story are correct, the money from fines does not make more for the town than the money fed into parking meters. So why on earth would they continue to keep such a negative parking ordinance when they could otherwise encourage money going into the local budget and could keep local shoppers and shopkeepers happy at the same time?
Some towns are figuring out that people come downtown more often, and spend more money, when they can park without problems. Grand Rapids, Michigan has been trying out in-car parking meters. Some towns cover parking meters during the holidays, and some towns are eliminating the outdated machines altogether.
We once attempted to do some holiday shopping in beautiful, downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Although the town doesn't utilitze parking meters, they have their own nasty-nice way of telling you to shop quickly, or eles. We skipped half the stores we really wanted to visit, and we left the area to find food because our time ran out.
I hope we'll see a return to the days when cities thought more of keeping downtowns alive than they did of harrassing shoppers. We may actually get to the point where the heavy budget cuts will mean the elmination of personnel who now spend their days giving tickets to those who park and shop. Maybe that's a good thing. It will mean the city officials can encourage hard-working cops to put their focus back on thieves and murderers, where it belongs.
posted at: 10:41 | category: /Politics | link to this entry
Every now and then a story something like this pops up in some town that has insufficient parking. Usually the magical meter-feeders are costumed area residents who enjoy brightening someone's day. In this particular case the meters were being fed by local merchants who didn't want to see their shoppers get a ticket during the holiday season.
One might suppose, in an era of increasingly tight city budgets, that the additional money placed in parking meters would be a welcome addition to the local economy. But some towns favor local ordinances forbidding this sort of thing. If the statistics from the San Luis Obispo story are correct, the money from fines does not make more for the town than the money fed into parking meters. So why on earth would they continue to keep such a negative parking ordinance when they could otherwise encourage money going into the local budget and could keep local shoppers and shopkeepers happy at the same time?
Some towns are figuring out that people come downtown more often, and spend more money, when they can park without problems. Grand Rapids, Michigan has been trying out in-car parking meters. Some towns cover parking meters during the holidays, and some towns are eliminating the outdated machines altogether.
We once attempted to do some holiday shopping in beautiful, downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Although the town doesn't utilitze parking meters, they have their own nasty-nice way of telling you to shop quickly, or eles. We skipped half the stores we really wanted to visit, and we left the area to find food because our time ran out.
I hope we'll see a return to the days when cities thought more of keeping downtowns alive than they did of harrassing shoppers. We may actually get to the point where the heavy budget cuts will mean the elmination of personnel who now spend their days giving tickets to those who park and shop. Maybe that's a good thing. It will mean the city officials can encourage hard-working cops to put their focus back on thieves and murderers, where it belongs.
posted at: 10:41 | category: /Politics | link to this entry
