Can’t Happen in Plattsburgh

The City of Plattsburgh, New York, has a problem. There isn’t enough parking downtown. Although according to this article, they have a large parking structure that is very under utilized.

What to do, what to do?

The Mayor says that his predecessors have grappled with the problem but to no avail. Merchants are concerned, residents can’t find a place to park, and employees are frustrated that they have to move their cars every two hours on street.

Meters? Too expensive, and besides, you would have to monitor them and there is no money in the budget for a parking enforcement officer – after all, they are letting the part time one they have go, as there is no money for to pay them. The cops will have to enforce parking ordinances. There is simply no solution in Plattsburg.

Now let’s see – if they put some type of fee system in, what would it generate. Let’s say there are 500 on street spaces. At ten per block face, that’s only a bit over 10 square blocks. If they charged $.50 per hour for an eight hour day, they would generate $4 per day per space, or $2000 per day from parking. OK – let’s call it $1000 per day from parking. I would think that with $1000 per day, they could install something (P and D, P/s, Meters, Pay by cell) and pay an enforcement officer to write tickets. They could easily pay the salary of the officer on the tickets written, one would think. Ten tickets a day at $30 a pop – Should cover somebody’s salary.

Of course when you did this, you would have to begin charging a bit at the structure, but it would be less than on street? Maybe first hour free, something like that. Monthly permits could be sold for those who worked downtown. Couple a hundred of those at $50 each would generate $120 K a year. Surely there’s a clerk somewhere in city hall that could sell the permits. The cost would be minimal…

Nope, guess it couldn’t happen, at least not in Plattsburgh.

JVH