As I was posting my entry below on San Francisco I glanced at the news feed and sure enough, there was an article about my favorite city by the bay. San Francisco is flying in the face of all reality and raising their rates in their off street garages by $1 an hour (to over $3 per hour in most garages). The on street rate is $2 an hour, less in high parking areas like Fisherman’s Wharf. I don’t think its changing.
So — lets see, we have a dearth of parking on street so we raise the costs off street and drive the cars out of the city garages and on the streets to vie for spaces that don’t exist and cause more problems.
Come on, SF, its the other way around. You raise the rates on street and drive the cars into your off street garages. What about parking policy don’t you understand.
Oh, read the story here. You will see that the thrust is where the revenue is going to go — note the term "general fund". This flies in the face of all reasonable parking policy. It will, however, make life easier for the private operators. They can now raise their rates to match the city. Of course, this will make the parking problems in SF even worse…
I need an aspirin.
J
