AFTER A LOT of years in this business, I’ve learned it’s important not to overthink things. Some things just don’t pass the smell test.
One of them is the stinker of a new proposal to raise parking rates in downtown Savannah, and make the hours 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Saturday in the most high-demand zone.
While those are the headline-grabbers from the $250,000 consultant-created set of “mobility solutions” — part of what you pay for is shiny new words! — those misguided suggestions are part of a larger and generally much more reasonable update of Savannah’s parking system.
It’s my fond hope that the more soft-headed suggestions will get the ax, and some of the other proposals in the study will be enacted.
Politically speaking, the 10 a.m.-10 p.m. six day per week idea is the lamest of non-starters.
Hypothetically speaking, if I were a newly elected Mayor of Savannah, I’d make so much political hay gleefully bashing this idea that Donald Trump would blush and accuse me of going over the top.
When I posted about it on Facebook, the reactions were choice. Here’s a sampling:
“If the target demographic is people with disposable income, then that’s either well-to-do locals (who either already have on-property parking, street parking passes or money to spend on cab fare) or tourists (who are already paying hotel taxes and/or garage parking fees). So in reality, the meters end up disproportionately hurting low- to middle-wage earning locals just trying to park safely near work or run everyday errands.”
“When I play shows downtown my take home is about $25-$50. If I am having to pay to park for 2-3 of those hours it will take a large percentage of my take home. It of course hits the minimum wage workers even harder.”
“How on Earth did they not take into account the impact of residential and student parking for free in front of so many businesses? Many of the locals that live above us have garage and private spaces in the lot nearby but they park by the door to be convenient and block our customers from gaining access.”
“Tybee got greedy with their parking and now a lot of people don’t go there as much anymore. Tourists, yes. Locals, less. Who is Savannah for?”
“If Savannah wants visitors to pay for parking in evenings and on weekends, it will be expected to offer all the amenities of a major destination: direct airport from NYC, LA, Chicago, Houston, 24/7 dining, visitor access inside cemeteries after dark, sightseeing tours that cover many more historic districts (Ardsley Park, Victorian District, Starland District…), store hours that extend well beyond regular business hours…”
There were a couple of eloquent defenders. Here’s a quote from a friend successful in the tourism industry, with no ties to City government or the consultant:
“It will help the entire Historic District by dealing with an increasing number of visitors who threaten the infrastructure and ignore the nearly 1700 parking spaces that go unused. It’ll make people walk more, bike more and stay downtown longer. It’ll cut traffic, relieve snarled zones and spread parking more evenly.”
That in a nutshell is the City’s basic position. And a lot of the new proposals do make sense. Just not the one about 10 a.m.-10 p.m. six days a week.
See the entire “Parking Matters” study for yourself at www.savannahga.gov/parkingmatters
As I’ve written before, the truth is Savannah is a much smaller market than we tend to want to admit.
I’m convinced this misperception is the cause of much of our collective inability to adequately and realistically address longstanding local problems.
For example, our metro area is less than half the population and economic critical mass of Charleston — which charges six days a week for parking downtown.
Our metro area is at most about 1/20th the population and nowhere in the same galaxy of economic mojo as Atlanta —which charges six days a week until 10 p.m. in “entertainment zones,” i.e. most places you’d want to dine or shop.
Simply put, despite our frequent delusions of big-city grandeur, Savannah doesn’t yet have the diversified economy and critical mass to justify six day a week parking until 10 p.m.
What we are now is still a small town—a small town where nearly a third of the population lives in poverty.
While “livability” is often touted in studies like this, one of the most livable aspects of Savannah is precisely the fact that locals know they can drive downtown after business hours or anytime on the weekend and don’t have to pay for parking.
However, if one’s goal is to discourage locals from coming downtown to shop or have fun, and make more room — and make more money from — visitors, then this would be a quick way to do it.
I don’t even want to get into the issue of people poking around for debit cards and coins to feed meters in the dark at 9 p.m., given the drastic increase in armed robberies already going on downtown.
Don’t get me wrong — there’s a lot to like about this new parking study.
Increased share of revenue going to bicycle-friendly streets and paths is part of the package. That’s awesome.
Eliminating the confusing hodge-podge of rates and maximum parking times is long overdue. Over 20 different combinations of rate/hours! Ridiculous.
Making parking garages more competitively priced than on-street parking is also a no-brainer.
(For some reason us locals refuse to use parking garages. I’m as guilty as anyone. When I go to Charleston I have no problem parking in a garage. For some reason, in my hometown I refuse to use garages. I don’t understand this syndrome and I doubt the consultants do either.)
Again, I encourage you to check all this out for yourself. It’s not all bad.
But higher rates and more days and hours of paid parking, whatever else it might do, would mostly serve to increase the metaphorical distance between downtown and the rest of the city.
This article appears in Mar 9-15, 2016.
And here’s another issue, why did the consultants stop at 6 days per week for parking. Why not all seven days – or whoops – would this cut into church attendance? God forbid. And would charging for parking on Sundays invite religious opposition? Heaven forbid that little level of opposition. Businesses – hell they can suffer and pay the costs of the extra parking – churches – hell no?
Here is our take on it. We drive downtown after work to grab a bite to eat, do a little shopping and exercise (stairs) 3-5 times a week. We spend a lot of money downtown. We do this because of the free parking after 5pm and on the weekends. We used to use the parking garages for safety, then they hiked the prices and it pushed us to the streets, it just added too much expense the number of times we drove down there. Now considering that we spend many hours downtown on the weekends the cost will increase dramatically. If it’s going to cost 6-8 dollars on each weekday visit and 10-12 dollars on the weekends, instead of free, we’ll just go eat on the south side as well do more shopping. This will just hurt the local businesses as you’ll just have tourist and no locals. Let’s not forget the hassle of feeding the meters in one way or another. Yes you get spots to turn over faster, but it’s also going to have people leave the district faster and leave with their money.
I recently learned that some locals don’t park in garages because they’re built on top of water and with the possibility of major flooding, parking underground doesn’t seem like a good idea. That has changed my mind.
As Jim points out, not all the proposals are bad. I want to address the parts that ARE bad. I am part of the service industry downtown and my safety when leaving work is a priority. If the 6 days, 10am to 10pm proposals are put into action as stated, my parking budget will go from approximately $1 a week to $44 a week. That means $2,288 a year! That is not taking into consideration holidays and event/festival season. Not living downtown and working late night hours eliminates bike riding as an option. City busses are unreliable to get me to work on time and have shut down by the time I leave work. This will literally make it too expensive to come to work. While garage parking would be fine if it is close enough (safety) or if there is a FREE shuttle to get me back to my vehicle at 1am (some workers are leaving around 4 or 5am) or so, I just don’t see how it can happen. There are thousands of service industry workers arriving every evening and when they are pushed to buying evening (after 3pm) garage passes for close to $40 a month…even if they can afford them…are there going to be enough spaces in the garages? Will we be forced to drive all over the 4 corners of the historic district trying to find a garage that is not full?
Once again the folks in power are putting the burden on the backs of those who can afford it the least. The Hostess City is forgetting about the Hosts.
Even tourists will be put off. If they’ve spent the day in Savannah on a tour (where they’ve parked for free or have been given a ride downtown) and spent almost $30 each for the tour plus lunch, plus shopping, why would they drive back downtown at night for dinner and entertainment AND a parking fee and inconveniently placed parking garages, or be forced run back and feed the meter, or fiddle with a credit card on a dark street corner (not to mention that I was told recently that one person’s credit card number was stolen because he used it to park downtown. Is it true? Is it repeated often enough so that it becomes “media true”)?
Why not just stay on the southside and go to one of the nice restaurants there? Part of the appeal of going back downtown is convenient FREE parking. You should see their faces light up when I tell them that parking is FREE and that downtown is a mere 15 – 18 minutes away (I-95 to 16). They Luv it!
Just announce it’s another way to soak the tourists — oh and definitely begin to spend the proceeds before they come in so we can have another SPLOST so we can purchase TWO inconveniently placed civic centers instead of fixing the one the have!