HomeMy WebLinkAbout2/21/2023 Item 6a, Feltman
From:Tres Feltman <
AM
To:E-mail Council Website
Cc:customerservice@thetribunenews.com
Subject:Parking downtown
This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond.
Dear Mayor and Council members,
I just read with amazement that the City Council thinks that by raising parking rates they “hope” it will encourage more
people to walk or bicycle to downtown.
Instead, it will deter SLO county residents, who already dread coming downtown, to never come downtown again.
Tourists certainly won’t be waking or riding bikes downtown. I wrote to city council in February 2018, wondering why
the city was not moving forward with the Palm Nipomo parking garage. I received back the following note from the city
manager Derek Johnson:
Thank you for reaching out and we are monitoring parking demand and supply so that we construct this facility when we
document that there is consistent demand to cover the financial associations of making this sizable investment. As you
can imagine, with the emergence of autonomous driverless vehicles and flagging car ownership, we want to make sure that
anticipated demand covers the capital outlay for this facility. Please expect to hear more from City Parking Services
about the specific details of this project.
Six years later, there are no Autonomous Vehicles, car ownership certainly is not flagging and you are no closer to
building the much needed parking structure. It’s interesting that council (erroneously) predicted autonomous cars and
lower auto ownership but were unaware that the cost of building the parking structure would increase every year you
waited. By postponing the construction of the parking structure you have put the city in a deep hole. Who will take
responsibility for the poor leadership and decision making by our city government?
I can’t help but wonder where all the tax revenue from the multitude of new housing developments is going? Apparently
not for more parking in Downtown.
Charles Feltman
1