DB: Where to Park
Sitting in the window of the Black Water Cafe its easy to space off and begin to stare out the window at people the people flowing by on the sidewalk and on the street beyond. I’d say about 50% of the people in cars stare right back, almost as if there wasn’t anything better to look at (like the red light coming up on south 9th) aside from me peeping over the top of my computer. It’s funny how many people look like they might stop, and then realize that they are busy and trapped in traffic and so the dream of enjoying some coffee is stripped from them like the promise of free health care. Besides there is rarely anywhere to park.
The meter maids frequent this block, most of the parking is 2 hour, but there are some 1 hour and 15 minute slots that they keep their sharp beady eyes locked onto as soon as they round the corner. Lovely Rita my foot. Usually I don’t drive here, I live just around the block. However, one night I left on foot, forgetting that I stopped for a drip on a long drive home. In the morning, walking back to get some joe to start my day, I was surprised to see the car and not so surprised to find a little yellow ticket under my wiper. I thought about taking the wipers off and then there would be nowhere for them to put tickets, but rain is inevitable.
A short time ago we were standing outside the cafe and a brand new black Mercedes Benz drove by all super slow with the tinted windows half down. Creeper, but looking through the windows at the wide-mouth stare you would think the middle aged man had never seen kids in skinny jeans before. He drove by slow enough for all four or five of us to make snide comments about his behavior and then turned left as if to enter the driveway for the parking lot behind the Brown and Seeley law offices across the street. However, he must have still been staring at us in his review mirror because he drove his brand new $80000 car into the rather substantial corner of the Qwest building that borders the driveway he was aiming for. Crunch.
As fluid began to flow from under his hood and the headlight fell out of its socket he slammed the car into reverse and then back into drive having re-aimed the vehicle a yard to the right, aligning himself more correctly with the driveway. His mutilated bumper folded under the driver’s side tire and we could hear him scraping his way through the lot in the back into the Court E alleyway. For the handful of dirtbags that got to witness this destruction of one of the most potent symbols of the upper class, there may never be another moment as gratifying in the brief period of our twenties that we still look halfway attractive in clothes that don’t actually fit.
Poor bastard could have just parked if there was anywhere to do so. Parked and gotten a good long stare in without having to humiliate himself to the point of further damaging his auto in order to avoid the shame.
My friends Tobin and Maureen have it worse at the Mad Hat Tea Shop on Commerce. There are only two parking spots on the commerce entrance of their shop, and most of the time one of them is taken up by the police car that belongs to the Officer who keeps an eye on the B.I.A security headquarters next door. Customers aside, there is really nowhere they can park downtown without having to close their shop every hour to jump out and play musical spots with the other business owners. Tobin went radical one month and just let the tickets pile up on the windshield. He had this amazing fan of them hanging on the wall in the kitchen, probably like $200 worth… which brings up the question of how much a pay-for-parking spot would cost him per month.
How much revenue can the city really make on illegal parking? Is the time we are allowed to spend in one place downtown preventing people from being able to really shop? The mall sure as hell does not have a time limit on their stalls, but downtown doesn’t have a Jamba-Juice or a Nordstroms for that matter.
Filed under: DB
13 comments
D Douglas Tooley October 28, 2008
I was in court yesterday for a parking ticket. Definitely guilty, but also with my curiousty piqued.
The ticket was for not turning my wheels, in the alley behind the ‘Y’. It is signed, but it is also a North-South Street, and the only street or alley in any of the contigous blocks so signed.
I guess if there had been an accident from a roll-away it might make sense. I talked with someone in the City Manager’s office about the policy was, IMO, a rather snide remark saying they can ticket on any ‘perceptible’ grade, but that they only do so where signed.
Funny thing about this alley, though it is a very moderate slope it is also an arch, sliding downward at both ens. And level in the middle.
No conclusions here, but it does strike me as weird. The law, as it stands, isn’t horrible, but it still might merit review for consistency.
If there is a point relevant to current parking debates though it is that parking revenue and enforcement isn’t about generating fees, it’s about making work for everyone while covering the costs of doing so.
-Douglas Tooley
M Marty October 28, 2008
DB,
You ask three questions…
1) How much would it cost to park in a pay lot?
My question back is why is your friend parking in front of his business and complaining that there are no spots for HIS customers? If not in front of his business, another business?
Pay lots in Downtown Tacoma range from $35 per month to about $100 per month. Maybe a little more for a few garages.
With a little looking he should be able to find a spot near by for about $75.00 per month, far less that the $200 he may be spending now.
2) How much money can the City really make?
A: none.
The point of enforcement it to ensure that there is adequate parking available for customers and visitors.
3) Is the time we are allowed to spend in one place downtown preventing people from being able to really shop?
A: Yes. A recent survey confirmed that the majority of on street parking in Tacoma is in 30 min and 1 hour signed areas.
The average visitor needs about 90 – 120 min for each stop.
Our current Parking Management system is flawed and needs adjusting.
My question is: “How do you increase availability of parking for customers and visitors, without creating a system that is easily abused by long term parkers?”
Sorry for the long post, I feel Like Erik B only w/out the personal parking spot.
D Douglas Tooley October 28, 2008
Minor correction –
City manager’s office wasn’t snide in their response to me, but the response they got from the Parking enforcement folks did strike me as a bit a bit stand-offish – as in ‘just who do you think you are to ask a question about a law which appears flawed?’
FWIW, that attitude is a flaw.
S Sandy October 29, 2008
Isn’t the flawed parking system part of the flawed plot to corral everyone interested in going downtown into a flawed mass transit system?
B BC October 29, 2008
I don’t know why all of the small business owners in downtown think that they are entitled to park on the street outside of their businesses. I watch them all the time bounce from one metermaid route to another. Alot of these people aren’t smart enough to realize that it’s their own cars that are preventing potential customers from stopping.
D Douglas Tooley October 30, 2008
Managing parking for owners and employees is very much a part of what Marty is talking about.
Transit advocates themselves are not themselves universally a smart bunch either, killing many a business with proposals for car free streets in City after City, including my own hometown, Eugene.
FWIW, there are lots of bikes on the streets of Eugene, the numbers making it safer than any mere paint on the asphalt.
And, I’d bet if both the business owners and the transportation advocates BOTH started riding their bikes regularly they might all be a bit happier, and healthier.
And you can definitely put good health in the ‘bank’.
L LB October 30, 2008
I work on Broadway and was on a waiting list for 3 months to get a parking spot and now pay $115/mo for it. Also, we have one car in our family and walk to work whenever we can from the Stadium District (meetings during the day necessitate the car). I add this to the conversation because as someone who moved here from downtown Seattle, Tacoma’s downtown parking situation is pretty awful. During the three months I waited for a parking spot to become available, I recieved two “chain parking” tickets. I was floored! Encouraging people to walk/bike/take the bus is great, but it doesn’t solve the problem. I know a lot of good people are working on this issue – thank you, good people.
T tobin October 30, 2008
I don’t really think there is an answer, just another process that will undoubtedly please some of the people none of the time. A real problem is the absolute refusal of most ‘drivers’ to walk more than 1/2 a block to their destination. Have these people never been to Seattle, or Olympia for that matter? Ironically enough, my clientèle that uses public transport (a huge factor in placing my business on such a prime location as Commerce Street)or walks/rides a bike, have no issues with burning a few calories to visit the shop. For many we are a spoiled society of stripmall frequenters and big box store shoppers. Consider an average visit to Costco involves a hike of about a mile, more if you factor in parking a city block away from the front door IN THEIR OWN PARKING LOT. This does not dissuade thousands every hour from doing so, however, having to park 2 blocks from your destination downtown is deterrent enough to shop on line or hit the mall. It will change as more people move into and around downtown and become accustomed to ‘hiking’ around our scattered retail, gallery and restaurant village. Go Tacoma.
T tobin October 31, 2008
Forgot to mention. The parking lady and I chatted at length and she was very forthcoming in mentioning that the revenue from the tickets issued does not even cover the cost of the parking enforcement unit. So…..
T Thorax O'Tool October 31, 2008
The parking is only frustrating when you’re in a hurry.
Any other time, open parking spaces as far as the eye can see.
The second you’re late and need to hit the bank, BAM! everyone and their uncle is parked downtown, and you have to park by the UWT to go to BofA.
S SN November 3, 2008
Answer: Bike Bike Bike
The rare times that we do take the car downtown (and don’t bike or bus) from our home in North Tacoma we always end up saying “AHHH, we should have just taken the bikes!” Why is it that everyone feels so entitled to a have a car and expect to have someplace to put it everywhere they want to go? It really is way less frustrating to just bike, even in the rain, even on the hills.
C Cromletch McHammer November 3, 2008
Parking concerns me not.
I just walk.
I mean, it’s not like I do it to save trees or whales or anything. I just walk because I’m poor and my POS 1970 Beetle only runs when the moon is correctly aligned with Jupiter.
But hey, I did lose 20 pounds this last 4 months since my poor car went skitzo.
T Thorax O'Tool November 3, 2008
McHammer?
Welcome to the Exit133 hardware department.