HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/7/2023 Item 6a, Fredman
Dan Fredman <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Parking meters/rates (stop me if you've heard this one before)
Dear Ms. Mayor and esteemed City Councilpeople,
Please permit me to add my voice to those of other who are clamoring for a resolution to the parking enforcement times
and rates in the heart of downtown San Luis Obispo.
Short version: Please stop enforcing the parking meters at 6 PM, therefore making it easier for people to patronize
restaurants and late-opening businesses (live movie theaters). And if the numbers work out, maybe you could lower the
hourly rates during the day too. But I think that having free parking at night is far better for the downtown image as well
as for the merchants.
Long version: I was born and raised in SLO but escaped to the big city for forty years. I returned in 2021 and really enjoy
living here. I’m not going to move just because of the parking situation, nor will I move due to a well-intended but poorly
designed bike lane situation. But I can deal with that. I dealt with stop and almost-stopped traffic in Malibu, Los Angeles,
Berkeley, and Dallas for years and I’m still alive, and I can deal with the inconvenience here. But parking while
patronizing, while not being a god-given right, sure makes it convenient to spend my money downtown and avoid going
to Madonna Plaza, Paso Robles, and the Five Cities Area.
Heck, in the mid-1970s I even lived downtown, (upstairs at 777 1/2 Higuera) and I commuted across the street to Stereo
West/Pacific Stereo. It was the ideal urban living arrangement, before anyone knew that this was desirable. Free parking
was available three blocks away, and temporary parking at meters was relatively easy to find. Even back then the mayor
was being evangelical about the need for urban planning and how bad the mall design was and the necessity of having a
viable downtown to maintain the city’s tax revenue. (And how did that work out, Mr. Schwartz?) It’s like the City Council
continues to debate the same topics they were discussing in 1975, and the downtown district still feels like it’s about to
enter its death throes era. Changing the parking regulations won’t change this in the long run, but for the near and mid-
term, I think it can help make downtown SLO someplace considered vital by the locals.
Obviously, this is not an easily solved problem (if it’s solvable at all), but maybe make life a little easier on everyone and
at least tweak the parking dilemma. Sure, I’m downtown 3-5 days week, but it’s for early-morning yoga, and I attend the
early classes because I don’t have to worry about my meter running out (which kind of goes against the stress-reduction
I’m hoping to achieve from the yoga!) and me being issued a ticket.
Best of luck with all of this. It requires the wisdom of Solomon, but that’s why you were all elected.
Thanks for reading --
Dan
—
Dan Fredman
PH: 323.899.9463
dan@danfredman.com
Instagram: dwfredman
1
2