The City of Meridian, MS, has a problem. Folks are parking downtown and overstaying their welcome. From what I can surmise from the article — HERE the good folks in Meridian can park free downtown, but only for a certain time limit — lets say 2 hours. After that, they are fined $6. They want to move that fine to $16 and institute a techno-based scheme to collect it.
The goal is to get the employees of merchants in the area to park in the local garage and free up the on street parking for (Shudder) customers. If I owned a store there and found my employees parking nearby on the street taking customer’s spots. I would immediately change their status from employee to customer. But I digress
The motivation to have employees park in the structure is that if they don’t, they will get a ticket. This isn’t working, whether its with chalk (as now) or hand held techno based (proposed). One hapless parker received $400 in tickets in one month, and I guess is simply ignoring them.
Do we need to discuss my solution — CHARGE FOR ONSTREET PARKING — Change more for onstreet than parking in the structure. Take the money generated and hold a party every Saturday afternoon, or Friday night. Invite everyone down town to enjoy the results of their parking charges.
I’ll tell you one thing, there will be parking available, and people will love to pay for it.
JVH
