HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/7/2023 Item 6a, Powers
CM Powers <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Nov. 7 Meeting, RE: Business Item 6a: Parking Program Update...
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Hello,
This is an effort to reach out with regard to the parking situation in downtown SLO.
The downtown merchants of San Luis Obispo have some amazing, wonderful, unique and
special shops -- and we would love to shop there, if only we could afford to do so. Most of our
shopping is done at the Madonna Plaza and Irish Hills areas because we can park for free
and close-by to the shops we wish to patronize.
Due to an accident several years ago, I have multiple issues with my legs and back, have a
handicap parking pass, and sometimes have need to utilize a cane. A one-hour parking pass at a
kiosk is $4.00 per hour, given that you can find somewhere to park at all; handicap spaces are
few, and walking several blocks takes up time on the meter, not to mention the discomfort.
Patronizing multiple downtown shops and eateries is out of the question, as it is simply too
expensive to park for that long. There is no longer any bespoke “day out shopping with lunch”
in downtown SLO.
I am wary and uncomfortable with the lift situation in the parking structures, and cannot take
the many stairs. As such, street parking is the only option, and with so few handicap spaces
available, it is impractical to attempt to shop or dine in downtown SLO. Add to that those
businesses that charge $4.50 to use a credit card terminal on a purchase of any amount without
limit (no doubt to try and make up for slumping sales), and it’s an exercise in “why bother.”
And so we don’t. Multiply our experience by hundreds of SLO, Los Osos, Morro Bay and
Cayucos residents, and one can easily do the math.
A cautionary tale is that of Santa Barbara, once a lovely place to live, shop and dine, as we once
did; now possessing an all but hollowed-out downtown with nothing but tourist tee-shirt shops
and a few novelties. Hope Ranch on one side, Montecito on the other, and everyone else in the
core center of Santa Barbara wondering what happened to their town. Please don’t let that
happen to San Luis Obispo.
Thank you for your time.
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C. Mary Powers
Baywood-Los Osos
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“Don’t waste electricity, paper, food. Live the way you want to live, but just don’t waste. Look after the natural world,
and the animals in it and the plants in it too; this is their planet as well as ours.”
-- Sir David Attenborough
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