Public vs private parking, is there a difference?

I have been looking back over the past four or five days of “Parking news” on Yahoo and its hard to get excited about the stories. They are all basically the same. The local merchants/citizens/students are up in arms over parking in the community and the local /city council/mayor/administration is worried/confused/taking some action on the topic.

Rates are being raised/lowered/eliminated/begun to solve the lack of enough parking that supports the local business/building/venue/university/hospital.

Citizens are irate/happy/annoyed/demanding/marching/yelling/ over the situation.

In the end the problems go back to public sector parking. It either costs too much or too little, there isn’t enough of it, and it’s in the wrong place. Fair enough.

But where is the outrage over private parking. When there’s not enough parking, the people just take their custom elsewhere. If it costs too much, they lower the price or the merchants pick up the tab. If the lack of parking is a probleml, the businesses involved make more, install shuttles, hire valets and the problem seems to go away. There is no democracy issue – businesses sink or swim based on parking availability. The customer is always right. But there is someone to pay the bills – the owner, shopkeeper, the parker. The Private sector understands this. If you charge someone for something you had better deliver.

An example – There is “free” wifi at some airports. It usually doesn’t work at all. Then there is “Pay” wifi also available. It almost always works right, has high power, and is easy to get access to. You get what you pay for.

In the public sector, Peter’s wonderful democracy is in action. Committees are formed, studies done, the Mayor’s wife gets her input, and decisions are eventually made. And all hell breaks loose. There are 500 parking articles in US newspapers in the past week, virtually all about on and off street parking issues that relate to the public sector. I tried in vain to find one that dealt with the private sector and could not. Even though half of the parking in the US is from the private side.

Why?

I think it has to do with a term we are hearing more and more these days – “Stakeholders” Wikipedia defines: “a person, group, organization, or system who affects or can be affected by an organization’s actions.”

Well, let’s see. If I am in private business the relationship is one on one. I am the businessperson and you are the customer. There aren’t really a lot of other stakeholders in the relationship. If I screw up, you vote with your feet. Pretty easy.

There are hundreds of stakeholders in the public sector and they range from private citizens (who each have individual and “group” interests), to businesses, to government bureaucrats, to politicians. Where a private business takes an action it may affect its customers, but that’s usually it. However when the public sector takes an action, everyone’s ox is being gored. WOW

A private sector decision is made and that is that. On the public side, hundreds of stakeholders may be involved in the decision. For good or bad. Triangulation and ability to “sell” the deal takes over. Is the best decision made, or is it a compromise, satisfying few…

I have great respect for the public parking sector. They have tremendous pressures and have to work their way through them. AH HA – Perhaps a workshop for the IPI – The Politics of Parking – Maneuvering through the tangled web of public parking policy.

JVH