Now its a “Crisis”

I already commented on how amusing it is that politicians are "shocked SHOCKED" when shown that the government is screwing up in some way. The other word they use consistently is "Crisis".

One of the councilmen for the city of Washington DC is declaring that there is a "crisis" around the new Washington Nationals’ ball park and that he has a solution. OK I am making fun of his dialog, but his solution is right on the mark.

I am frankly amazed.  This courageous politician, one Tommy Wells, is proposing that the onstreet parking rates be set at an amount equal to the cost of parking in the stadium parking lot. He wants to actually use market rates to stop the congestion around the stadium. WOW!!!

I just love this quote:

The ballpark visitors are going to be very tempted to look for cheap
parking" on city streets, said Neha Bhatt, a planner in Wells’s office.
"We’ve got to get that out of people’s heads that free parking exists
here."

These folks are right on. Now if he can just get it through the city council, it will be interesting to see if the proposal actually works. I predict it will if they set the rates ABOVE the parking structure rates so people will be more liketly to park in the structure to save money.

Set the rates so that there is a 15 % vacancy factor. People who shop in the area will have a place to park, congestion will be minimized and those visiting the ball park will immediately go and park in the stadium parking or use some other type of transportation.

Way to go DC.  If it takes calling it a "Crisis" then I’m all for it, and shocked SHOCKED that they are actually considering a Shoupista approach.

Rah

JVH