PT BLOG
JVH comments on Parking News every day at PT Blog – log on at
www.parkingtoday.com. Each month, there are at least 40 other comments like these, posted daily.
Parking Problems in the Pines In May, theWhistler, BC, Council directed the parking
office to double the parking rates and to implement pay park- ing in one of the local garages where parking had been free. Here is the kicker: No consultation, just do it; we need the revenue. Of course, the garage was full but pay parking goes in and the garage becomes a barren waste land. There was a public outcry, a petition, a Facebook group
and 250+ letters to council. So the council decided to sus- pend pay parking in the garage and commence a comprehen- sive parking study and community engagement. This destination vacation location has become a hotbed
of parking activists. The council wanted to balance its budget on the backs of the parking public, and the public reacted, as they should. It’s a classic object lesson to city councils. Arbitrarily
raising parking rates to garner increased revenue doesn’t work. It only makes people angry. However, if you take a step back and address the rates situation, give your customers input, and then take a market approach to the process, suc- cess can be guaranteed. Oh, it also helps if themoney raised by parking goes back
into the neighborhoods whence it came. You know, better lighting, sidewalk repair, more cops, whatever. Simply dump- ing it into the general fund is never a win and can guarantee substantial PR problems, and maybe even an election loss.
Then, of Course, There’s Oakland LikeWhistler,Oakland, CA, is attempting to raise parking
rates. They have done some good things in the face of the recession, but can’t seem to get any respect. I quote from the news reports: Over the past year, Oakland’s city councillors slashed the
size of city government, cut 350 city employees, sliced their own budgets by 20 percent, took 10 percent pay cuts and per- suaded powerful city unions to swallow up to 10 percent wage concessions as they reduced budget gaps of $144 million ... shuttering no major programs and even, with the help of the mayor, increasing the number of cops to a historic high in one of the most violent cities inAmerica - leading to a 13 percent decline in the city’smost serious crimes. Yet, the figures provoking citizen outrage are 50 cents and
2 hours. They represent the increase in hourly parking meter rates to $2 and the extended time, nowuntil 8 p.m., thatmeters are enforced. Will they never learn? Parking is themost emotive subject
known to man. Screw with a person’s taxes, and you have a heated discussion. Screw with their parking, and you have a revolution. Once again, it sounds like a good PR firm is needed. As
one city councillor put it: Council members had some 35 pub- licmeetings on the now-$400million budget, but they’ve found themselves taken aback that the complexity of the budget process has gotten buried in protests over parking. “I’m amazed at how many people are only now hearing
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about our budget crisis,” Councilwoman Pat Kernighan said of her talks with residents over parking. “I don’t think they under- stand the context in which some of this is happening.” This city has succeeded in reducing all its services a bit,
painfully, but in doing so, was able to keep all its major programs. WOW! Sensible government, and in Oakland, right next to Berke- ley, but I digress. They cut every program in the city and heard little or no
complaints. When then started messing with parking, all hell broke loose. It sounds like a few public meetings discussing parking in
general, a market approach, and good information on where the money is going would be in order. MaybeWhistler and Oakland could use a good“parking retreat” where they could discuss these issues. Don Shoup, call your office.
Summer Parking Should Be Free Heh!! –an opinion piece in a college newspaper (Cal Poly’s
Mustang Daily). The problem is that the headline writer didn’t really read or understand the piece. I’m sure the headline got a lot more readers, but it missed the point. Market pricing would work; doubling parking fees doesn’t. If you fight your way through the commentary (http://mus-
tangdaily.net/summer-parking-should-be-free/), you find that the writer (and beer critic, we are told), in fact isn’t against paying for parking. He’s against paying twice what he paid last year
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