I’m not going to share my political opinions, and goodness knows we’re going to be subjected to months more of a steady stream of ridiculous and annoying back and forth blather from the candidates, so nobody wants to read about it here. I did want to take this opportunity to point out another way one of our political parties is aggravating voters. In downtown Cleveland, the Republican National Convention has caused parking prices to skyrocket, according to crainscleveland.com.
I know it’s not so simple as that. The Republicans haven’t actually ordered parking prices to be raised, they’ve just shown up and given parking operators a good reason. Undoubtedly, the operators are happy for the chance to increase their profits, and that’s all part of a healthy economy. The profits and the tax revenue they create will eventually benefit Cleveland residents, but for now, those trying to park in the city are disgruntled.
As always, the closer parking was to the action, the higher the cost. A block north of Quicken Loans Arena, the Ontario-Prospect garage across the street from JACK Casino charged $40 instead of the normal $10. The parking lot on the northwest corner of Public Square charged $30 instead of the $10 daily rate.
I don’t even think the Republicans could do anything to make people feel better about the way the convention is affecting their parking costs. An apology will be inadequate and forcing operators to put a cap on their prices is impossible. Cleveland residents are just going to have to wait it out. I doubt the party has even considered the public relations ramifications of its descent on the city. Our political parties think we are all honored to have them; that they are meeting our needs; that all their operations are justified and helpful. But the truth is, we are just stuck with them.
Read the article here.
3 Responses
$40 a day?
Excuse me while I chuckle at the low price.
Cities bring these events in as revenue generators for hotels, restaurants, taxis, airlines, etc. Should parking operators somehow not be eligible to participate in increased revenues based on demand?
Parking is always the easy target as we have our rates posted for all to see on the street.
The rate isn’t such a big deal, it’s the magnitude of the increase that causes all the commotion. To the visitor it’s probably no big deal to see parking at $30-$40 for a large event, but for a resident or daily worker a 300%-400% jump in price is shocking. If gas stations or hotels jacked their rates by those %’s they’d be charged with price gouging.
We (the Country in general) do this to ourselves because we’ve over-built parking to the point that it’s grossly under-priced the majority of the time (in most cities, NOT ALL).