HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/7/2023 Item 6a, Hoffman
Shoresman, Michelle
Sent:Sunday, November 5, 2023 10:40 AM
To:SUSAN L HOFFMAN
Cc:E-mail Council Website
Subject:RE: Parking Downtown SLO
HI Susan,
I am copying the council and key city staff on your email so that it can be logged into the record of public
comment on the item being discussed Tuesday night.
Michelle
From: SUSAN L HOFFMAN <
Sent: Saturday, November 4, 2023 9:52 PM
To: Stewart, Erica A <estewart@slocity.org>; Marx, Jan <jmarx@slocity.org>; Francis, Emily <EFrancis@slocity.org>;
Pease, Andy <apease@slocity.org>; Shoresman, Michelle <mshoresm@slocity.org>
Subject: Parking Downtown SLO
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Dear Mayor and Council Members,
I moved to San Luis Obispo in Fall 2003, and am a lifelong registered Democrat voter.
I will be unable to attend your special meeting to discuss the issue of parking in downtown SLO but I want each of you to
know that I am so very displeased with your current parking policies, I am willing to vote against all of you in your next
elections.
I am 75 years old and try to manage on a fixed income. I have been a regular user and supporter of the SLO Library, and I
used to go to the Mission and its garden for inspiration, to the beloved Palm Theater, to Growing Grounds, to Barnes &
Noble, Phoenix Bookstore, Boo-Boo Records, HumanKind Fair Trade, Hands Gallery. I used to get a coffee, walk around,
window shop, shop for holiday presents, have a bite to eat. There used to be many affordable parking spaces and
parking lots.
No more!
I no longer can afford your new parking meter rates.
I don't use the parking garages because I don't feel safe in them, with so many transients and recent instances of
violence, as well as I can't afford them anyway for an afternoon of shopping.
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Your parking policies are the last straw of ruining what was a beautiful, relaxing, welcoming small town, and they are
ruining long-time businesses.
Here is what needs to happen for me to return to downtown:
1. Return the parking meter prices to what they were previously.
2. Return my ability to park in a 30-minute space near the library and use quarters to do so. Make it easy for me to
support and use my local library!
3. Make Sundays or one day of the week a free parking day, as it used to be.
4. Remove the parklets and return those curbside spaces for the community to park. The reason for the parklets is
gone. Our businesses are dying. Their owners and employees are suffering.
5. Your goal should be to make downtown parking easy for those of us who live here, not make us miserable, or send us
away to shopping centers because of free parking.
6. Please respect and represent those who are communicating with you why your new parking policies are not working!
Susan Hoffman
San Luis Obispo resident for 20 years
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