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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/7/2023 Item 6a, Eidelman From:Jeff Eidelman < To:E-mail Council Website Cc:Bettina Swigger Subject:Downtown parking This message is from an External Source. Use cau?on when deciding to open a?achments, click links, or respond. ________________________________ Dear Madam Mayor and City Council members Gree?ngs and saluta?ons! Like many San Luis Obispo ci?zens, I have been confused and now dismayed with the current parking situa?on. I am 70 years old and have lived here for 44 years! I DON’T WNAT TO COME DOWNTOWN ANYMORE! It’s all because of the parking situa?on. Yesterday I had lunch at the Creamery, it was $6.50 to park and I was s?ll worried I might get a ?cket. Parking in the 1 hour free parking structure for San Luis Obispo residents is s?ll confusing and difficult. Some?mes I don’t know how long I will be downtown. I don’t like using my cellphone for anything, let alone trying to figure out how to put more money in the expensive meter. Some ci?es like Palm Springs give free parking to encourage people to come downtown to shop. It wasn’t so long ago that we had Covid destroy our downtown businesses, don’t strike another blow to the downtown business owners and to us, the ci?zens who would prefer to shop there. I liked having a ?cket and a meter person charge me when I le? the parking structure. The wages that you would have to pay someone seem far less than what losses you will incur as more and more of us older folks stop shopping downtown . And I am one of the lucky ones, I CAN STILL WALK! Many people I know cannot and one day that will be me too! Either I will have to drive and park or not come downtown at all. With all due respect, you need to think long on this one and put the locals ahead of the tourists for parking. In my case, you make a couple of thousand dollars off my bed tax from the airbnb I run, every year. So the city coffers have many different ways to make money. Please let us park easily and for reasonable rates. Thank you! Jeff Eidelman 1