Oh, this is precious…
The locals in Philadelphia are complaining that operators raise the prices when there are special events in town thus "gouging" the folks who come to the events.
Lets see — the city is going to repeal the law of supply and demand. As the demand goes up, and the supply remains the same (unless we could somehow magically increase the number of parking spaces for the week of the show) the price must by economic definition.
So the city is going to tell operators if they raise the prices, they must keep them at that level for a month. Yep
“This bill would require them (The operators) to file their rates at the beginning of the month, and they would not be able to file new rates until the next month. So anything that happens in between, they would not be able to take advantage of in gouging the public,”
I guess the operators will simply have to decide whether or not any business lost by raising the rates for the three weeks when the show isn’t there, is off set by the amount they make when its running.
Let’s see — how about another solution. If the city is so concerned about downtown parking, why shouldn’t they open lots on the edge of town — and run shuttles back and fourth to the convention center. That would give people a choice, cut down on traffic, and make a few shekels for the city (of course they would hire local companies to run the lots and the shuttles).
Naaaah — I’m sure the local City Council can think of a hundred reasons why that won’t work. It’s much easier to take away the rights of private businesses to run their garages as they like.
JVH
One Response
John, You normally get it right, but I think you have unfortunately taken the wrong path and do not understand the total situation as to what is occuring in Philadelphia.
There are a total of fourteen(14) companies that are licensed to provide parking in the downtown section of Philadelphia. Whenever the Convention Center has held a major show such as the Flower Show which draws people from all over the nation, the parking lots closest to the Convention Center have, at times, increased the hourly rate charged while the customer is in the show. The customer entered the parking lot with the knowledge of one rate and upon exiting has been charged a different rate, at times the rate charged has been doubled without proper notification to the customer. This creates a bad taste in the mouths of tourist and people looking to visit the city. Memebers of City Council along with several departments with in the city have attempted to work with the parking community on this issue with no resolution. The current ordinace on the books in the city requiers parking companies to inform the city of the intention to increase rates 24 hours prior to raising the rate. Most of the companies can’t even comply with that, including several of the nations largest parking companys’. A recent poll showed that 82% of the people from the surounding counties that would visit Philly prefered to drive. The Convention Center in cooperation with the Center City District provides a free shuttle from outerlying parking areas to the Convention Center for large shows such as the Flower Show. The parking companies that raise thier rates based on the time of day are doing so out of greed and are doing very little to extend a warm welcome to those who chose to visit “the City of Brotherly Love”