HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/7/2023 Item 6a, Congalton
From:Dave Congalton <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Final Thoughts
This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond.
For Mayor Stewart and fellow council members:
As you prepare for Tuesday night's critical council meeting, I'd like to share a story that happened just today.
I ventured downtown this afternoon (only my fourth visit since July 1) to attend a book signing and celebration on behalf
of Pacific Wildlife Care. We gathered at the Hot House above the empty Ross store.
The event started at 2 p.m., but they didn't get to the featured speaker until close to 3 p.m. He ran long and by about
3:45, audience members were getting up and leaving. I was sitting by the entrance. Guess why they were leaving?
Parking. Their time was running out and they didn't want to get a ticket. Anyone surprised? I wasn't.
I invite you to listen to my show Monday from 5:05 to 6 p.m. when more downtown business owners will express their
frustration over the new parking policies. Podcast will be posted by 7 p.m.
Meanwhile, respectfully, I ask council to take the following steps in Tuesday:
Instruct parking officers to be kind and considerate.
I'm hearing it from people. I bet you are, as well. It's bad enough that the parking fees have been increased, but there's
no reason to take pleasure in pouncing on people whose meters have expired or warning people that there are tow
trucks at the ready to haul their cars away. Is it too much to ask that the citizens of San Luis Obispo be accorded a bit
more kindness and consideration from city employees?
Support Jim Dee
Jim Dee has been a fixture in this community since before some of you were even born, first with the Rainbow and now
with the iconic Palm. How many thousands of people have descended on the downtown over the years to see a movie
at the Palm and go out for dinner afterwards?
1
The guy is barely hanging on and no one in City Hall seems to give him the time of day. If the Palm closes, kiss the Jewish
Film Festival goodbye. And I guarantee you that you can also forget about the SLO International Film Festival--they can't
survive without the Palm.
I know Jim plans on speaking Tuesday night. LISTEN to him and see what is possible to HELP him stay afloat. If Jim Dee
were to run for office, well, you see my point.
Appoint a Citizens Commission
I'm hearing that council wants to spend money on outside parking consultants. Aren't they the ones who got us in this
mess to begin with? Why not save your money and appoint a Citizens Commission to promote dialogue between City
Hall and the Downtown. Dave Garth or Pierre Rademaker could bring people together and come up with realistic options
for moving forward.
My fear is that you're going to toss folks a bone by allowing one free hour of parking at all the garages. That's a positive
first step, but we all know the business community is going to be asking for more, especially to curtail late evening
parking fees. I hope you will listen to that argument.
Finally, I'd like to pre-empt an argument that you may be tempted to bring up Tuesday night. The Tribune reporting
included a quote by Matt Horn, which suggested, "Horn said between July 1 and Oct. 7 of this year, the city recorded
about 150,000 more parking sessions downtown than it had in the same period in 2022 — even in spite of the changes
to downtown parking."
That sounds impressive until you put it in context--in 2022, we were still coming out of COVID, restaurants and
businesses were still struggling and people were staying home. In 2023, they came out more, so of course there's going
to be an increase in 2023. I would demand better data to indicate that the fee increase is not affecting downtown--the
business owners beg to differ.
My three minutes are up. Thank you for taking the time to read this over and good luck in wading through all this as you
decide future steps.
Best,
Dave Congalton
2
Dave Congalton
KVEC News/Talk 920 AM and 96.5 FM
3620 Sacramento Drive
Suite #204
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
920kvec.com
3