Providence Merchants United in Outrage Over Parking Meter Expansion
Friday, April 08, 2016
Providence merchants on the East Side and Federal Hill are up in arms. They say the installation of new parking meters will discourage shoppers and diners.
"The 'toll booth' face of Wickenden Street that would accompany parking meters will send shopkeepers and customers alike running, largely because it’ll destroy that fabric of a friendly neighborhood-shopping district.," said Charlie Fishbein, who owns the popular Wickenden Street Coffee Exchange. "We’ll be just another strip mall, but with a $2.50 ante."
The Wickenden Street Coffee Exchange opened roughly 30 years ago. What's made his and the other businesses on the street a success, he said, is the welcoming atmosphere of the neighborhood.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"The Toll Booth" Revenue
Fishbein hung a copy of a petition that's being circulated to halt the installation of the new meters slated to take place in June on the door. Thus far, Wickenden business owners say they've got about 1,500 people to sign the online version. At least 500 others have signed hard copies.
But the administration sees the new meters as a way to enforce parking regulations and raise revenue.
"It is part of an ongoing effort to modernize and expand our parking enforcement programs in commercial districts throughout the city," said Evan England, Mayor Elorza's spokesman, yesterday.
"There are benefits. We also see streamlining in our ability to enforce time restrictions. And also see increased turnover and ideally, lower traffic in areas that have adequate available parking."
There is also a revenue aspect to the plan. The mayor's current budget expects an increase of roughly $1.7 million dollars in additional revenue from the new parking meters this year. The new meters will bring in about $4.2 million in additional revenue in subsequent years.
The plan adds roughly 700 new meters throughout the city when finished. There were 1400 before the plan was enacted. Those meters will be more "user-friendly", since they accept credit cards.
New meters have already popped up on Federal Hill and portions of Wayland Square.
"A Money Grab"
Bob Duva, the President of the Federal Hill Commerce Association, said that the opposition there wasn't as fierce as it is on the East Side. He attributes this to the fact that there are mostly restaurants, not retail stores, located there.
Nevertheless, Duva said that he doesn't support the idea. He believes the majority of the other businesses on Federal Hill don't either.
"I see it as a money grab," he said.
Nina Tegu, who serves as Co-Chairwoman of the Hope Street Merchant's Association, is also opposed.
Tegu, who owns Studio Hop, located on Hope Street, said she appreciates the fact that Mayor Elorza has a difficult budget situation on his hands. But she doesn't think parking meters are the answer.
Are Meters The Answer?
Tegu said Hope Street businesses are looking for customers to spend longer periods of time in that particular neighborhood so that all of the businesses benefit. The businesses there don't want their customers to feels rushed because of parking meters.
"We're not a downtown district where folks park, shop an hour, and then leave. We're more of a destination where people can potentially spend the whole day," said Tegu.
Parking meters, she said, put a dent in that plan. Instead of meters, the city should look for ways to attract people, not deter them. In the long run, she said, that would create more revenue.
Merchants aside, some community activists believe parking meters can be beneficial.
"I think we need meters, but local merchants should decide, at a neighborhood level, how to use the money," said James Kennedy, a local activist. Kennedy advocates for a more robust public transit system. He is also an advocate of plans that make bicycling easier and safer.
Kennedy said the revenue should benefit the neighborhoods that deal with the parking.
"For residents, that could literally be represented as a check each year in return for living next to a high demand parking area. The city should thank residents for dealing with parking overflow by lowering their taxes," Kennedy wrote on his personal blog, Transport Providence, recently.
Free Parking's High Cost?
Kennedy's viewpoint corresponds with Donald C. Shoup's ideas. Shoup is a retired professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. Shoup is the author of a book titled "The High Cost of Free Parking".
Shoup's ideas posit that free parking has incentivized driving. That's led to more carbon emissions, higher housing prices, inflated real estate costs, and, of course, high levels or traffic.
Shoup has long advocated for parking meters that charge market-based costs. In other words, the costs of parking should be such that the price leaves one or two spots open at all times. If, for example, free parking would leave one parking space open at a given time, than that should be the cost at that time.
But that's exactly the case on Wickenden Street already, according to Harry Adler, who owns Adler's Design Center and Hardware.
"We don't have a parking problem here on Wickenden Street," said Adler. "The Mayor is finding a solution for a problem that doesn't exist."
Adler said that there's almost always a place to park on Wickenden Street. Parking doesn't need to be regulated there, he said.
"If this isn't taxing our way out of our budget problems, I'm not sure what is," said Adler.
Over on Hope Street, Pat Zacks, who owns The Camera Werks, also said that well enough should be left alone.
"I don't see a problem with parking on Hope Street," she said.
"I really don't think the Mayor has thought this plan through."
"I'm Never Coming Back"
John Lombardi, a long-time former Providence City Councilman, and current state representative who represents Federal Hill, said what Kennedy is referring to--sending the money back to the neighborhood--was a talking point used to implement the plan in his neighborhood.
"The selling point was that (the neighborhood) could apply to the city to have some of those funds placed back into the neighborhood. I'm not sure if that's legal because all of the funds have to go into the general fund," said Lombardi.
Lombardi said that's unrealistic considering the fact that the city has budget woes and needs all the revenue it can possibly get.
Lombardi, a former Acting Mayor, who ran unsuccessfully in 2010 and is considering another run for mayor in 2018, said the parking meters will impede the economy.
"I was talking to a guy just the other day who went into one of the local markets on Federal Hill. He came out to find a parking ticket on his car because he went over the time limit," said Lombardi. "He looked at me and said 'I'm never coming back'."
Lombardi isn't the only elected official unhappy with the plan. East Side City Councilman Seth Yurdin sides with the merchants.
"I don't support the expansion of parking meters on Wickenden Street and I have expressed my concerns to the administration as well as supporting neighbors and local merchants in their efforts to oppose their installation," said Yurdin, who represents portions of the East Side, which includes Wickenden.
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