HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/11/2023 Item 8a, Ayral (2)
Odile Ayral <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:8.a. Parking districts (and parking garages)
This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond.
Mayor Stewart and Council Members,
I would like to add a couple points to my earlier email. Officers rarely, if ever, come to the permit parking
districts without first having been called by a resident. We have had to take things into our hands, and to
place notes on the windshields of the guilty parties (mine says: “you need a permit to park on this side of the
street.”). Across the street from my house, along the school side is a two-hour parking. For more than a
month, every day, a teacher parked her car all day long in that zone. Nothing happened. I finally called
parking services, and a couple days later, the guilty car disappeared. If I had not called, it would still be there.
Most of the work—and nearly the only work—faced by parking services when it comes to permit parking
districts is whether they approve or disapprove the request for a permit. Otherwise, petitions and papers for
approval are circulated by the neighbors themselves, and—I say it again--enforcement by the neighbors,
except during the weekends when the SNAP takes over, and gives citations.
Someone said to me that the permit parking program does not pay for itself. Since when does it need to pay
for itself? Will the $6 million-dollar-Chorro-greenway pay for itself? Obviously not. Compared to this, the
permit parking district program is cheap, and brings a great deal more to the residents’ peace of mind.
Yes, “the city’s parking program is in utter disarray.” Yes, you do need more worker bees and less managers
(this is the curse all over our country, unfortunately!) But if you must hire outsiders to do a job, please hire
the right people. I will never again use a SLO parking garage unless you improve the situation. Why?
1. The price increase is brutal. You should have done it in stages, but suddenly tripling or quadrupling
the original price is cruel and greedy. It cost me $7.50 to get together with friends I had not seen in a
while, and I don’t intend to repeat the experience.
2. An employee helped me use the machine, so I know I did it right. When I reached the question
“how long” I was going to stay, I could not believe it. How do I know how long? I am using a parking
garage so I don’t have to know how long. Parking garages did away with this nonsense. Apparently,
not here in SLO.
I am afraid that downtown businesses are going to suffer from this huge price increase, and time
guessing. People will simply shop elsewhere.
Sincerely,
Odile Ayral
1