We are seeing more and more of this. Common sense — even directed at oneself. According to the "Republican American" in Waterbury, Ct, the merchants in the village of Seymour are concerned about their parking, and know who causes the problem, the merchants. Read on:
SEYMOUR — Larry Foster hasn’t opened his shop
on Bank Street yet, and he said he already knows the "parking games"
that get played in downtown Seymour.Looking out of the window
of his new store, Daddy’s Goods, Foster said he can count how many cars
parked on the street are owned by local business owners. Tapping on the
side of a cash register he installed over the weekend, Foster admitted
that he wasn’t parked in the municipal lot two blocks away while he
unloads heavy objects into the store."If
everyone who either owned the shops or worked in the shops parked in
the municipal lots, there really wouldn’t be that much of an issue
parking," said Foster.Complaints about downtown parking
problems — an almost daily issue on the minds of many business owners
in the four or five downtown blocks — have crept up again. Community
Police Officer Jospeh DeFelice told the Board of Police Commissioners
last week that he had fielded several complaints this month from
merchants and professionals.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
However the Jackson County, Wisconsin, reports that businesses in downtown Black River Falls are in a quandary. They admit that business owners and employees park downtown and take the spaces, but don’t want tickets written because "ticketing is destroying downtown businesses." Read all about it here.
So let me parse this for those of you for whom it isn’t clear. The downtown businesspeople are parking in front of their stores and taking parking space so it can’t be used by customers, however when the police try to enforce the rules, they complain that the POLICE are destroying the downtown businesses. HUH?
This is one of THE problems with on street availability in downtown cores. The other, and I can almost guarantee you this is the case in Black River Falls, they don’t charge for parking downtown. They probably have a "two hour" limit or somesuch rule and that, in itself, is difficult if not impossible to enforce.
I have to agree with the head of the downtown merchants who said "…talking about the problem to business people is like talking to a wall."
JVH
One Response
After reading this article it seems that whether or not the downtown area has meters or not, the business owners think it must be smart to park in front of their businesses and blame the cities when their businesses is down. What kind of common sense does that come from. A growing downtown needs parking enforcement to keep those spaces open for paying customers. In my opinion, businesses owners who park in front of their business and loses money gets what they deserve.