Friday, August 7, 2009
Oakland May Change Course on Parking Meters
Business / People / Politics / Transportation Robert Gammon — Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 10:46 AM
Oakland Vice Mayor Ignacio De La Fuente and Councilwoman Pat Kernighan say the city council made a mistake when it extended parking meter hours to 8 p.m. and plan to introduce legislation that would roll it back to 6 p.m. when the council reconvenes next month, according to the Trib. The council's decision to extend meter hours and raise parking rates on June 30 sparked citywide outrage. Store and restaurant owners argued that the parking meter changes would hurt their businesses, which are already suffering because of the economic downturn.
The council made the parking meter changes, along with numerous other difficult choices, while closing an $83 million budget gap, and didn't expect it would generate such a strong backlash. But as we've noted before, raising taxes and/or fees during a recession is not good policy. Government should be doing what it can to spur economic growth during difficult times - not stifle it.
Comments (4)
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To whom it may concern:
Oaklanders leave Oakland to shop and dine for many reasons not related to parking issues: better choices, better restaurants, perception of less crime, etc. Parking is not killing Oakland business....it does not help but don't kid yourselves about parking "driving away" business.
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So Mr. Allstadt, you say that my Grand Lake Theater "has it's own subsidized parking",
If that is true I would like to know where that might be.The parking lot under the 580 freeway is approximately 50% permit parking during the work day with the permit fees being paid directly to the City of Oakland. The balance of that lot is 4 hour free parking for the entire Grand Ave. & Lakeshore district. Last Thursday, when the theater was closed in protest, the 4 hour parking was completely full and there were certainly no movie patrons in my theater. Clearly it is not the theater's parking lot.
How did that lot come into being? In 1984 as I was going through the process of obtaining permits to build Grand Lake theaters 3 & 4 council member Mary Moore worked with me and together we negotiated an agreement with Caltrans, which owns the property, to transfer it's management to the city for a free surface parking lot to serve the community. Prior to that it was the home to trash and weeds.
This parking issue is not a Grand Lake Theater issue or even a Grand/Lakeshore district issue. The devastating impact on business is citywide and is getting worse on a daily basis. Anyone who doubts this has only to walk into several shops or restaurants in any part of Oakland and ask the proprietor what has happened to his or her business since this ill conceived policy of aggressive ticketing, extended hours, and meter rates that are far and away the highest in the East Bay, was dumped on Oakland in a cowardly sneak attack on July 1 following an approval late at night at the June 30 council meeting. The result is quite simple, Oakland's customers, including those who live in Oakland, are leaving town to shop and dine in neighboring communities where they are not targeted and punished for spending their money. The effects are devastating on thousands of small businesses who were already on the edge of failure in this terrible economy.
What happens to the revenue generated by the City Council's actions as businesses begin to fall in a cascade of bankruptcy?
As well the residential community has been terrorized by squadrons of parking enforcement officials that are making life in Oakland intolerable for so many hardworking low income citizens.
If the City Council, which now understands the extent of the disaster they have unleashed on our city, does not IMMEDIATELY return in emergency session to correct their mistake then they clearly do not deserve to hold office. It is unacceptable that they go on vacation, while still getting a paycheck from Oakland taxpayers, and let the damage to our communities continue!
Allen Michaan
Grand Lake Theater
Those fees and parking hour extensions raised $4 million to balance the city budget.
Revoking the fee increases means finding $4 million to replace the revenue. Where do we find that money? Show me.
One possibility is to re-institute the fees for parking at the City-owned lots in the Grand Lake district. Right now, the Grand Lake theater has it's own subsidized parking. We could take that away in order to roll back the meters to 6pm.
Unrelated comment: Your blog needs a "Home" button at the top of each post to go back to the list of most recent posts. It's a standard feature on almost every blog out there. I've got to go up to the "blogs" menu every time which is a bit of an annoyance. A "next" & "previous" link along with the "Home" link would be even better.
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