HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-23-2015 PH1 MainFrom: Owen Main [owenmain @gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2015 9:57 AM
To: Marx, Jan
Subject: Thanks for asking the question about parking
Mayor Marx,
JUN 19 2015
COUNCIL MEETII'3 : Cp _
ITEM NO,:
I wanted to write a quick email to thank you for asking the question about credit cards in parking
structures in SLO. It has long been a pet peeve of mine that the city does not take credit cards at
the structures. There has been at least one instance where my wife had a $20 bill and was told the
attendant didn't have change.
How is it that I can easily transfer money to a friend or buy something online using my phone,
but the city can't take credit cards in structures? There are lots of systems that are automated --
where we don't pay someone to stand in a toll booth, but rather make people who park pay with
their card. Whatever cost the system has is surely offset by staffing costs that these structures
RWWS i P
Cash and change are seen as a hassle for many these days. As a side note, unless all the meters
take credit cards, you may as well have none of them accept them, since you have to be prepared
for the contingency that there won't be an available credit card meter and since the structures
don't take credit cards. I used to have a "stick" that I could use with the old meters. It was great --
everybody was on the same system, parking was the same price across the board, and I didn't
have to hassle with change when going downtown. The only thing that was missing was being
able to load money onto my keychain parking stick thing via the web with a credit card, but I
figured paying $20 a few time a year at the Chorro office beat having to search for change all the
time. Not having to think about it was really valuable to me.
Now there are various systems, costs, and ways to pay. And I go downtown far less because of it.
It seems to me that the technology has solutions for these things. Parking downtown is probably
one thing that residents of the city have to do pretty often. Honestly, the lack of consistency and
convenience when it comes to parking can easily be perceived as lazy city management that
doesn't have the community's best interests at heart.
One example of this is the lack of security cameras in parking garages. A few years ago, while
parked, our car was hit and whoever did it did not leave a note. It cost us time and money to get
fixed and the answer we got when we told the SLOPD about it was kind of a shrug and a "sorry,
there aren't cameras in those garages."
I think one thing you should be doing with revenue from parking is ensuring the safety of
citizens, and I don't think cameras cost THAT much, given the prevalence of them around the
world. It would allow police to actually track down hit - and -run cars in the structure (they told me
it happens a lot) and probably allow for added safety for people using the structures at night too.
Sorry for the rambling email at this point, but your question of whether parking garages will ever
accept credit cards hit a little nerve for me. I wanted to thank you for asking the question.
Hopefully it doesn't take employees of this city SIX MONTHS( ?) to find an answer...
All the best,
Owen Main
San Luis Obispo