Public Works Committee deadlocks over locally proposed parking permit scheme
On Tuesday (April 27th) the Oakland Public Works Committee discussed the locally originated proposal to introduce a mixed-use parking permit scheme in the Jack London District. This scheme was one of many proposals that the neighborhood based Ad-hoc on-street parking improvement committee came up with last year in response to the City's proposal to blanket the entire district with parking meters.

Key to the improvement committee's proposals were the introduction time-limited parking all currently free areas, ranging from 1 hour to 4 hour, plus the mixed use permit scheme. The permit scheme is designed to give local residents and business users access to the on-street parking in the neighborhood by allowing them to park in 3 and 4 hour zoned spaces. Initially the improvement committee suggested the first permit was in the $78 to $100 per year range, and additional permits would be $100 per year each. Permits would be available to each residential address and each business in the Jack London District.

After review by City staff and in response to comments by the Public Works committee at a previous meeting, the proposal has now been modified to be $100 per year for the first permit, and $200 per year for each additional permit, with a cap of 600 permits for the entire area. Additional permits would only be available to businesses.

However it appears that even with these much higher costs to permit holders, two of the Public Works committee members feel that the mixed use permit scheme would be in conflict with the City's "transit First" policy. Citing an AC Transit pass cost of $60 a month, and local off-street monthly parking rates of $60 per month (or more) they feel that at $16.67 per month ($200/12) represents a massive subsidy. This subsidy would discourage people from taking public transit or using local parking lots at market rates. When a parking meter can earn the City $8 per day on average why should the Jack London District residents park for just 54 cents a day?

Of the two dissenting committee members, Henry Chang (who is also the City Council at-large member) was adamant that he could never support such an anti-transit scheme. He explained that in Chinatown there is no such scheme and transit is so good in this area that only 25% of parking spaces in Chinatown residential buildings are used, allowing the remainder to be leased out commercially. Our District 3 representitive, Nancy Nadel, who chairs the Public Works Committee was quick to point out that Jack London District has poorer transit links, and bus services to it have even been cut in recent times.

The other dissenting voice, Desley Brooks (District 6) expressed the opinion that she could only support the permit scheme if convinced the price was not establishing a subsidy. She felt the current prices were arrived at in a somewhat arbitrary fashion and a more reasonable non-subsidizing price could be established. Since Nancy Nadel and Jean Quan (District 4) were in support of the scheme the committee was unable to get majority support for the motion to approve it and instead agreed to re-consider it in two weeks allowing time for further discussion about the permit pricing issue.

The Ad-Hoc On-Street Parking Improvement Committee urges you to attend the next Public Works Committee meeting to express your opinions and support for the mixed use parking permit scheme. The meeting will be held 12:30pm on Tuesday May 11th in Meeting Room 1, City Hall, 1 Frank Ogawa Place. It is recommended those who attend read the original ad-hoc committee's improvement plan on the Jack London District Parking page, and also the two most recent City staff reports from April 27 2004 and March 9th 2004.
Posted 4/29/2004