You can read about it here. I’ll yield to Mark’s comments first, he knows the area:
This battle has been going on in Sarasota for as long as I can remember. The jist of the argument FOR paid parking is that it costs the city more to provide and monitor the parking than they bring in from tickets, and they can no longer subsidize it from the general fund. The argument AGAINST paid parking is that it will unfairly penalize downtown customers and will in turn force them to take their business elsewhere and subsequently put downtown establishments out of business. In other words, the exact same arguments that are used in every city every day.
Why don’t these city’s quit trying to figure out a way to “spin” the issue and just lay out the numbers for all to see? Let them know they can pay for it out of general tax funds at the expense of other services (cutting grass at city parks, opening public pools, fewer police, etc), or they can have the end user pay for it through a fee. In Jax they just increased almost every “user fee” we have (garbage, permitting, etc) because they analyzed it and realized that none of the fees were coming anywhere close to covering the cost of providing the service. No one is happy about it, but it’s really hard to argue against the facts.
In today’s world it’s time for a reality check where both the government and the citizenry get an understanding of what the actual costs for government services are. “Free” (or subsidized) parking is one of those services, and usually it’s a BIG one.
They might also consider Don Shoup’s advice: When you charge for parking, guarantee to the local businesses that you will put the money right back into the area it came from. Urban renewal, new sidewalks, clean streets, promotion, more police, etc. If the merchants can see THEY are getting something for the parking fees and not the black hole known as the general fund, support would swing in the direction of parking charges.
However if the city simply says that they need money to balance the budget, who is going to favor that. Now is the time for cutting, not the opposite.
JVH
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Thanks for following the ongoing Sarasota conversation about paid parking. The Sarasota Herald Tribune reported this morning that the business community is not behind implementing paid parking – that, despite the fact that both the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Sarasota Alliance both wrote letters, and both spoke in support of moving forward with the implementation of paid parking.
Can anyone help with the following: Identifying cities who have recently (the last 6 – 36 months) implemented paid parking. Also, contacts at the local city hall, chamber, and downtown merchant groups so that we can follow up with them to get their feedback on how early implementation has gone.
I am preparing a matrix of most livable, most walkable cities which will track parking/transportation policies for each. Any direction would be appreciated.