HomeMy WebLinkAbout5/14/2024 Item 4a, Bennett
Wilbanks, Megan
From:Steele Bennett <steelebennett@me.com>
Sent:Friday, May 10, 2024 12:37 PM
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:5/14/24 City Council Meeting: Agenda Item 4.a.
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Re: City Council Mee?ng on Tuesday, May 14, 2024 Agenda Item 4.a.
Dear City Council,
My name is Steele Benne?, am re?red and have lived in Los Osos for 29 years. I now spend way less ?me in San Luis
Obispo since the parking changes, and restrict the ?mes I go into SLO, the days I go into SLO and the length of ?me I go
into SLO. I don’t like to go there anymore if I can help it, except when I can avoid paying for parking. The first change was
neighborhoods with permit only street parking. The second which really surprised me was the change in the ?me for
paid parking un?l 6, now extended paid parking un?l 9. I am not about to go out to dinner that late. Interes?ngly I got a
?cket for this as I had no idea this had been changed. I do not get the Tribune, nor have cable to watch KSBY so I never
saw any no?ce of the change un?l venturing back some?me a?er COVID. I fought the ?cket and it was upheld even
though I did not inten?onally ignore the parking fee in place un?l 9. This felt to me like a lack of respect for a long ?me
SLO county resident. I had recently been in San Diego where the parking con?nues to be free a?er 6.
It really seems the parking is actually worse that many big ci?es now, and is focused on making downtown a place for
tourists and ge?ng their money, rather than as MY town as a long term resident. I would think the now mostly empty
parking lot 10 at the corner of Higuera and Nipomo, which used to be packed would be an indica?on just how li?le SLO
county residents are willing to pay tourist rate parking costs.
And now, the one saving grace le?, the free hour in the structures, has been proposed to be eliminated. If that passes I
will do my best to never park in any of them again, and even with the proposed lowering of parking meter costs, I will
s?ll never park on downtown streets and instead I will park on streets far away and walk in, as I typically do now, and I
will go to Downtown SLO rarely and will consider it a place to get money from the tourists rather than as MY wonderful
local, beau?ful downtown. It seems and feels that you care so li?le about long term residents of SLO county who used to
love to visit Downtown SLO, and more about the tourist dollars.
Hey, what about some kind of SLO county resident passes, a variety that are responsive to the variety of different needs
and desires of those who live in the area? Please, be crea?ve and fair and try to avoid ruining visits to downtown SLO for
people who live in the area and love it.
Thanks for reading this and taking this into account, Steele (and Laura) Benne?
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