Mixed-Use Parking Permit Plan CHANGED
On Tuesday, June 24th at 1:30pm the City Council Finance Committee Meeting will hear a request from Council Member Nancy Nadel to make some serious changes to the Mixed-Use Parking Permit Plan. The meeting will be held in Hearing Room 1 at City Hall. You can see the agenda for the meeting here. Item #7 on the agenda (bottom of page 2) is of serious concern.

Ms. Nadel has requested that the Committee "Adopt The Following Pieces of Legislation:

(1) An Orindance Amending Ordinance No. 12864 C.M.S., To Modify The Boundaries Of The Jack London District Interim Mixed-Use Permit Parking Program Area, As Follows: (A) Move The Southern Boundary Of The Permit Parking Area South One Block From Embarcadero West, Between Franklin Street And Washington Street Only, To Include The Businesses On Water Street; (B) Move The Northern Boundary Of The Permit Parking Area North One Block From Fourth Street, Between Washington Street And Broadway Only, To Include The Southern Side Of Fifth Street Only, And (07-1440)

(2) An Ordinance Amending Ordinance Number 12809 C.M.S. (Master Fee Schedule), As Amended, To Modify Permit Fees Assessed By The Parking Division For The "Interim Mixed-Use Parking Permit Program For The Jack London District," As Follows: (A) Modify The Cost Of One-Day Permits From One Dollar ($1) To Ten Dollars ($10); And (B) Modify The Cost Of Two-Week Permits From Five Dollars ($5) To Fifty Dollars ($50), In Order To Matain [sp] The Program's Cost-Neutrality (07-1440-1)

This, my neighbors, is CRAP.

First off, the program has been in existence for all of six weeks and only enforced for four weeks. Why are we changing it before even getting settled?! The concern of the City is that they have not sold enough permits. Of course they haven't! It's the very beginning of something new. Never mind, they say, that the City has collected a huge amount of revenue from parking tickets. (no amount was available from the City) One parking enforcement person said that he had been writing between 20-30 tickets a day. At $70 per ticket that's $1400-2100 per day that the City wasn't getting prior to this permit plan.

Secondly, the businesses that this District has lost over the last 5-10 years because of parking woes are not going to be replaced overnight. It may take years to replace these businesses. How can you expect immediate turnaround for parking to be full with permit holders? Never mind the improvement existing businesses are experiencing because they can finally have clients, customers, and visitors to their businesses. That's what the plan was all about in the first place - getting Chinatown, train, and BART users to park elsewhere so that the parking in this neighborhood could be used by this neighborhood. It was the goal of this plan that businesses would have a better chance of survival and interest in the area if there was a parking permit plan.

Third, that the City - and especially Nancy Nadel's office - failed to contact the Jack London District Association prior to requesting this change is REDICULOUS. It affects the District, so the District Association should have been included in the discussions leading up to this prospective change in legislation.

Fourth, that the City is adding the availability for permits to be purchased by tennants of Jack London Square (Water Street) and the County buildings is preposterous! That's the whole reason the Parking Garage is being built in the Amtrak lot - to serve the tenants of Jack London Square. We've always been told that they wanted nothing to do with the parking permit plan - until it was implemented, and now suddenly they want the benefit. Sorry - go to the parking garage. Same story as the County Services buildings. We've been told time and time again that they don't take up hardly any parking and that they don't park for more than a few hours at a time. Okay, so then the 4-hour parking limits should work just fine.

Fifth, the City says that the ticket monies ($1400-$2100 per day!) go to the General Fund, whereas the Parking Permit Fees go to the Parking Division. But the expenses of creating the parking permit plan are to be covered in the permit costs. Well, do we have a new full time parking enforcement officer dedicated to our neighborhood? No. Is there a new vehicle? No. And honestly, it's a bad arguement because the City gets the money either way you look at it.

Sixth, the increase in costs for the visitor one-day and two-week permits by 90%? Give me a break! Raise the residential permit fees so that their program is also cost neutral by the same standards and I'll buy into this crap.

I hope that people in the District can go to this meeting and let their feelings on the subject be heard. I'm tempted to close my store - that's how important I think this is. (ride your bike)
Posted 6/17/2008