PT's Parking Blog

First Day at PIE

Just a few snaps so you can get the feel...

The management team - Marcy, Pat, Sandra, Andy

Andy, Marcy, and JVH

Boot camp -- 120 strong. Chuck Cullen opens the session

The Exhibit Hall Floor - 100 exhibitors, 500 attendees...It is jammed.

Matt Darst of the City of Chicago opened the exhibit hall. He commented that the City had attended many PIE events in the past and that its staff had learned much about parking technology and operations at the events. His comments surprised me. He said that much of the innovation that the city had instituted over the past few years came from PIE. WOW...

Gotta get back down there -- Rick West and his panel consisting of Dana Levenson, Emanuel Eads, Alan Lazowski and Thomas Lanctot are about to go on. Don't want to miss that.

JVH

Shopping and Free Parking

OK, I went shopping at the Grove, a local high end center in central Los Angeles. It has a great parking facility with counters telling you which floor has available space and everything. They spent over a million bucks on their valet lobby, but I digress.

I did my shopping and then asked for a validation (I left my ticket in my car). I was told by the store that since I didn't have my ticket, I should go to the concierge desk and they would give me an exit pass (I had spent enough to have a full day of free parking.)

The concierge told me that I couldn't get the pass unless I signed up for their "bonus club" program, a deal that meant filling out endless forms and probably exposing my email account to even more spam. So I simply asked again for the exit pass. I was again told, more firmly, that I would have to sign up.

Disgusted, I grumbled off, forming the letter I was going to write developer Rick Caruso telling him how his extremely high class and actually super shopping experience had been ruined by rules that couldn't be broken by line personnel. (I felt that when I waved my four figure receipt the answer should have been "yes sir, here's your exit pass, and thank you for visiting the Grove, " and not some bureaucratic double talk.

I got to my car, letter firmly in my brain and drove to the exit and put in my ticket, ready to pay, under protest, with my credit card. The gate opened. I had come and gone within the "free" time period. (I think its half an hour.)

My anger evaporated, the letter was forgotten.

However, in the end, that's not the point. The point is that line personnel need to be able to make on the spot decision which cost the company little or nothing, but create fantastic PR. One of Caruso's tenants, Nordstrom's, has built its reputation on just such decision making. The is an urban legend that someone showed up at a Nordstrom's store, asking to return some faulty tires. The clerk accepted the tires. Nordstrom's doesn't' sell tires.

It may have cost the store a few hundred bucks, but in the end, the publicity they got from that one incident has been worth millions.

JVH

Is this the beginning or the end of video enforcement?

I just don't buy it. The UK is going to authorize local municipal authorities to issue parking tickets using video. In other words, they can watch a spot by video and if a certain car is seen to have overstayed its welcome, they can mail the owner a ticket. They are also allowing the enforcement officers to write tickets without putting it on the windshield. Just mail it in.

I think this is absurd. I have mentioned this before, but the whole idea of a parking ticket is deterrence. Getting a ticket five days or more after the fact deters nothing and only makes people madder. If I'm standing there and see the ticket under my windshield wiper and then look at the sign and realize that I broke the rules, I can be angry, but actually only at myself. When I'm home going through my mail and find a ticket and I can't even remember where I was five days ago and will immediately get my dander up over "big brother" and the like.

This just isn't good policy. Period. But it's typical of someone sitting in an office somewhere trying to come up with an "idea" to raise more revenue, the parking public be dammed. If cities want more money, charge more to license a car, but don't do it by increasing fines and using all sorts of nefarious means to collect the money.

Along the same lines, I have learned that those red light and speed cameras are getting hit hard by the courts. Often they are out of calibration and in some cases work too well. One city noted that they weren't getting as many fines because people knew they were there and didn't speed or run the red lights. "We weren't collecting enough to pay for the cameras."

Well, la de da. Here's proof of what we knew all along. The purpose of these suckers wasn't to save lives or enforce the law, it was to collect money. Our government just HAS to get out of this money grabbing mode. If they don't…Well remember the reason for the Boston Tea Party. It was a hell of a lot more about taxation than about representation.

(Hat Tip Kyle Cashion)

JVH

Pregnancy and Parking

I have been trying to write about this for a couple of days, but I'm not sure which side of the issue I can stake out. It has to do with parking and pregnancy.

The State of California is discussing allowing third trimester women to get "handicapped" tags and allowing them to parking in handicapped spaces. Naturally all hell as broken lose because women don't want pregnancy to be considered a "handicap" however it is true, at least in my circle, that VERY pregnant women do have a bit of a problem getting around.

Some of those discussing the issue said that pregnant women should park further away since they need the exercise. Boy, I bet they slept on the couch after that little tidbit.

I think, after careful consideration, that this should be a decision left up to each individual store, merchant, and parking facility owner. If they want, then can put up a couple of "pregnant" only signs ( you know, nice little pink and blue ones with storks and babies on them.) I have seen them in front of some K-Marts and Wal Marts. I dare someone who isn't pregnant to park in the space when a full term mom shows up with her two year old. This will be self policing.

And it's good merchandising. Everyone will get a nice smile at the signs, and "almost a moms" will get a little relief.

They tried to do this four years ago in California and the brouhaha was so great that the bill died a quiet death. I'll bet that it happens again.

Yeah, this is the best approach. Keep the government out of it.

JVH

How Smart are Smart Cars

Smart cars are really smart, and easy to park. BUT be careful. If you buy one of the new Mercedes build tiny vehicles, be sure you park it the same way you currently do with your 20 foot long super tanker. Yep, even thought the car will fit nose to curb and still not protrude any further in the street than if you parked in a normal manner, the law says you must have your right tires within 18 inches of the curb. I'm told that in San Francisco, where else, that if you and your buddy park your smart cars in one space, that's legal, as long as someone pays the meter. If the time runs out, both cars are ticketed.

Of course my belief is that both should pay, but if you like, charge them less since they are using less curb space. Now that makes sense, just as a stretch Escalade should pay more than my Escort. Pay for what you use.

These cars are going to mean some changes in the laws. Not a bad idea.

Oh my sister-in-law in Calgary has one of these things. We were talking with her boyfriend one day about noise and being able to hear each other in the car. He says it's no problem. You are only inches apart.

JVH

Global Cooling? Really…

I know, I know, it has little to do with parking, but I just couldn't pass this up. You MUST read this article in the Australian. Basically is quotes a scientist, using UN and NASA data, as showing that global warming stopped in 1998 and in fact Global Cooling is now going on. HUH… This goes along with my theory that if politicians say something, believe the opposite.

If this is true, what is the industry set up because of Global Warming going to do? What of carbon footprints or the SUV demise. How about Al Gore's selling of carbon offsets? Does this mean he has to return his Nobel Prize?

What this article says, as many MANY scientists have said for years, is that our climate is much more complex that one might want to accept. As the temperature on earth increased, there was a corresponding increase in water vapor in the air, more clouds, and hence, a cooling period. Of course since green house gases made by man have Increased in the past decade, but the temperature has gone down, it seems that there may be little correlation between your Belchfire V-12 and global warming. It could be the sun's activity, or even something else.

What this all means, is that the models climate scientists have been using for the past couple of decades need to be tweaked to take into account this new data. Whoops!

I know this won't be on the front page of Time magazine or the lead story on the nightly news. I think what is happening is that so called Global Warming is going to take a long slow walk into that cold dark night – In like a lion, out like a lamb. It's just too embarrassing to be handled any other way.

JVH

Go Charlie Go…

My buddy Charlie Munn stepped in and gave me a hand with a couple of articles when I was out last fall having a bit of cow installed…or maybe it was bull. Anyway, thanks to Charlie.

However his work as a parking writer seems to have blossomed.  For some unknown reason I received my copy of the March issues of Parking and the Parking Professional on the same day this week and dutifully sat down to read every bon mot the IPI and NPA had to say. Suddenly I was confused.

I thought I had finished one magazine and had started the next, but found articles that weren't on the same topic, but were written with the same wit and turn of phrase. I looked at the author (I rarely do that) and low and behold, it was Charlie, and Charlie, and Charlie, and Charlie. He had penned four articles (two each) for the two magazines in the same month.

Then I went back and looked at the Parking Professional in February, January, and December, and found old Charlie boy had five bylined articles between the three issues. Wow, this guy is HOT!!!

I look forward to more and more of Charlie's holding forth on the parking industry over the next few issues of Parking and the Parking Pro.

Gee, maybe we'll get so we only have to read one to get the content of both…

JVH

I’ll be the one with the big smile on my face

Just got the latest number for PIE Attendees and I'm impressed. Andy and his team have done a great job. (Disclaimer: Usually I don't include exhibitor personnel in the numbers, but I have been convinced, by exhibitors, that all parking professionals in attendance are important. So with that in mind…) We currently have over 600 registered for PIE, and we normally get 20 percent of our pre conference registrations in the last week. In addition, we get about 25 percent of the attendees as walk ins at the show. So if you project it based on history, we expect to near 900 at the show, the largest in history. I'll be the one with the big smile on my face.

JVH

It Ruined my Breakfast

Even the comics couldn't bring me back. In the "home" section of the LA Times (I keep forgetting to cancel my subscription to this fishwrapper), there is a column this AM by one Joe Robinson entitled "When Parking Gets Personal." Go ahead, read it. It'll make your day.

The gist is that in residential neighborhoods people are at each other's throats because they are, can you believe it, parking on street in front of their neighbor's house. This is due to the "fact" that Americans are buying too much "stuff" and its filling the garages. Most people don't use their garages and the result is open parking warfare.

The solution – hire a shrink. Yes hire a mediator to come in and mediate your problem with your neighbor. For $100 an hour, subsidized by the city, you can bring the nincompoop next door who is parking in your petunias downtown and the two of you will leave in an hour singing kumbya and begin living in parking heaven. Give me a break.

There is only one real, fair, completely reasonable solution for this problem. Charge for on street parking in residential area. Nothing will motivate a resident to clean out AND USE his or her garage than a monthly bill for $50 for parking on the street. It might also prod them into getting rid of that junker in the driveway so they can park their "other car" off street.

But only in La La land would the city come up with an idea of having "conflict resolution" available for neighbors who simply are too lazy to throw away a bunch of junk in their garage or have a periodic yard sale.

Pass the Advil.

JVH

A solution to a complex problem

Municipalities find themselves in a bind. According to a friend in the Northeast, his city's enforcement and collections are a hodgepodge of pay and display, meters, hand helds, and two or three different back office software packages. He now wants to add pay by cell phone to the mix. He says that the cell phone companies are working with this software and hardware vendors but "aren't there" yet.

Fair enough. But what does one do in the mean time and who wants to be the "alpha site." Chicago took an interesting approach, but for a different reason. I went in to detail about this below, but suffice it to say that they didn't want to change their enforcement procedures at all. So they didn't. They added a pay by cell phone operation that works off an "in car meter."

This way, you (the city) do nothing. You continue as you have been. It's a "bridge" technology. You use it until something better comes along, or until it proves to be the way to go.

Is this perfect – of course not. Nothing is. But is can get past some of the problems and expense of having to re invent your back office or replace tons of on street equipment.

Just saying…

Ok, you cell phone guys, let me have it…

JVH

The 28% Conundrum

Percentages. What does it all mean? Sherlock Holmes had his 7% Solution – of Cocaine. Our industry's own drug of choice, is an accepted "loss" in a garage as a percentage of the gross revenue. Most operators or owners would tell you, informally and off the record, that a 5% loss factor was just about "as good as it gets." After all, we have a cash business and there you go…The operators try try TRY and simply can't get better than 5%. It's the industry standard.

Of course there are garages where the loss rate is as near "0" as is possible, and there are others that show losses much higher.

I was talking to a buddy (no that THAT buddy) the other day who audits garages and he told me that the 5% number was laughable. His firm has audited hundreds and hundreds of garages over the past few years and the numbers simply belie the "Industry Standard." He says the number is 28%. That's "twenty eight percent." Yes – on average, in garages across the fruited plain, over ONE QUARTER of the money that should have been collected, isn't. Since this is my personal experience I tend to agree.

Most owners would say "Sure, but that's an average. Some might be 56% and other perfect. I'm sure mine is among the perfect." Right.

He says that less than 5% of the 28%, or about 2% of the total loss, is from theft. Most of it is from incompetence, mismanagement, and simply not caring.

Some examples he gave me was access cards turned on, and in use, that were not invoiced on a monthly basis. He said he would go in to a garage, run an active card list, and find 1000 cards "on" but only 650 being billed.

Another problem deals with leases. When a tenant signs a lease, they may get a special "deal" on parking, say a 50% discount, for the first couple of years with an escalation clause that kicks in in year three. Very often, the garage neglects to "kick in" the clause and the tenant goes for years, often the life of their lease, paying the original rate.

A third problem deals with validations and other "deals" cut between the garage and local merchants. These deals are often perfectly legitimate, but, over time, their intricacies and codicils get lost in the mysts of new managers, owners, and operators. The information is passed from person to person and like the children's game of whispering a phrase in an ear, by the time it's passed a few times, it bears little resemblance to the original deal.

And of course there's the rate structure itself. My experience has been that there's the rate structure that's on the sign, the rate structure that's programmed in to the fee computer, the rate structure that the customer believes they are paying, and the rate structure as understood by the manager or the attendant. In many cases all are different.

The list is endless.

How does an owner sleep at night knowing that so much of their bottom line dollars are not being collected? That's a topic for a different blog. My concern now is just how to communicate that fact to the owner, and just what they should do about it.

Any ideas.

 

JVH

Upgrade to Vista – NEVER – Upgrade to Office 2007 Well……

I made the mistake of upgrading my "Microsoft Office" to Office 2007. It works the same, perhaps a bit more slowly, than 2003, but it just looks different and most of the commands are in different places. Its like leaning your language all over again.

But there is one nice thing. I can blog here in "Word" and then publish it directly on the 'net. A nice little feature. There are probably hundreds of others that I will discover over the next half a decade, when they will come out with 2012 and I will start all over again.

JVH

Flu

What's the worst part of the flu?  The cough, the flem, the drippy nose, the chills.How bout that liquid that fills your eyes and burns...I don't have much of a problem with all that because modern science has come up with pills and liquids that take care of most of those symptoms.  You can still get around without hacking and coughing on your neighbor.

The worst part, for me, is the depression.  I just can't make myself get moving. The dog looks at me with that little twist in her head that says "are we going for my walk now" and I just cower lower in my blankets, hoping that Rockford or Magnum will do something interesting so I can justify another hour in bed. Deadlines pass unmet, dinners uneaten, I'm just not up for anything. I took a shower the other morning -- was to go to lunch with a friend -- I then put on the same sweats I took off for the shower and climbed back in to bed.

This is not my way, but Mr. Flu just cuts me off at the knees. 

I'm a bit better today. Not as much coughing, chills are down, and dammit, I'm walking to the post office with Max (the wonderdog, an entirely different story.). I've got to get out of this funk.

They say you break writers block by writing, anything. I'm getting out of this by doing something, anything...

JVH

How Do People Get Themselves into these Situations?

The head of parking in Fresno was fired in 2006 for sexual harassment. He supposedly asked an employee to raise her shirt in exchange for $300 in city funds. She did. She also went to the city and complained. The city paid her an additional $150,000 and fired the parking head.

Oh it doesn't stop here. Robert Mandewell who had worked his way up through the ranks to run the parking, maintenance and landscaping department for the central California city, the raisin capital of the world, was put on trial this month for four felony counts including the sexual harassment, accepting $6200 in baseball tickets in exchange for lower parking rates for the team, nepotism (contracting with his brother to do some research, parking related).

The legal wizards in Frenso went to trial and couldn't even convict him on the baseball ticket charge, which he freely admitted.

You can go here and check out the stores in the local paper but I'm not absolutely sure Fresno got the better part of the deal.

When Mandewell became head of parking, they were netting 400K a year. In 2006, they netted $3 million. The deal he cut with the Local ball Club, the Grizzlies, gave him the ability to pass out tickets to his employees and enhance moral. As for his brother – the problem was nepotism, not the contract. For all I know, his brother was an expert in holding car shows on unused parking lots.

Obviously there wasn't enough smoke here to fan the flames in a jury's heart.

Oh, my comment on the sexual harassment. If he did it, he should be drawn and quartered. However this is a most difficult crime to prove and it is usually settled, as in this case, out of court with everyone agreeing to keep quiet and a lot of money being paid to someone. I just wish there was a better way to deal with folks who use their authority to ply favors…

 

JVH

Bay Area’s BART Beleaguered

Read the following at your own risk – the headline was great compared to the rest.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit District is getting flack from its own board members due to complaints from riders that the technology used in the parking areas is too complicated for the average driver in Baghdad by the Bay. If one tries to reach the Barbary Coast from Oakland or San Leandro you have to drive to the station, park, pay for parking at a Pay By Space machine, and then press on to your train and a transfer to a little cable car…

The problem is, it seems, is that folks can't remember their space numbers or they make an error punching in the three or four digits. That being the case, an alert enforcement officer nails them, a citation is written, and thus begins a conflict that probably ends at the ninth circuit court of appeals, who most likely will say that the charge for parking was unconstitutional, only to be overturned on a 9 zip decision by the Supreme court.

According to my buddy Kevin Hagerty of BART, parking is becoming a major issue as ridership increases and more and more folks are cheating on the lots. BART issues parking permits and often the reserved spaces are taken by non permit holders and the problem is made even worse.

This is a classic example where a bridge technology has been installed, only to be, extremely quickly, overtaken by another, potentially longer lasting technology.

Most of the wags in the industry, looking at the macro of on street parking, have posited that pay and display and pay on foot are technologies that is bridging between the parking meter and something out there, in San Francisco's case, halfway to the stars.

The problem is that folks are rushing to the train, don't want to take the time to deal with a meter, and haven't planned ahead enough to buy a permit, which, by the way, are sold in limited numbers. Naturally they will make mistakes at the P by S machine, or if they came from Berkeley and are heading for the Haight, might transpose a number or two.

The solution: Pay by Cell Phone.

I have noted earlier this week that Chicago (and innumerable other cities) use this technology. It doesn't replace the Pay by Space or Pay and Display, but it enables those who wish to pay their parking fees on the run so to speak. You park your car. Hit a preset on your phone, enter your space number, and that's it. No messing with money, cards, or waiting in line for the machine. This is the perfect application since most of the people in the lots use them every day. Of course this doesn't solve the problems with the folks from the smoke filled rooms in Berkeley because you still have to press the right button on the cell and enter the space number, but you can't have everything.

The neat thing about this is you can add it to your system with very little capital outlay, it solves the problem, and you can still keep your existing system for folks who prefer to use it.

JVH

“My Kinda Town”

With apologies to the Chairman of the board.

I spend a couple of days in Chicago last week, doing some prep work for PIE. By the way, the wonderful Pat reports that registrations for PIE are running 25% ahead of the same time last year. Plus Andy reports that we are SOLD OUT in the exhibition Hall. It promises to be a great show.

I had lunch with John Hammerschlag at his "club," The East Bank Club located on, you guessed it, the East Bank of the Chicago River. It's a health club and serves great food. John says he works out there three times a week. I certainly wouldn't mind eating there that often…They even give the caloric and fat content on every menu item.

John told me that his 201 Madison garage was peeking out at 92% credit card usage. That's a great number, of course he has hidden the 1 POF machine that takes cash in the back, under the stairwell, down a dark hall next to the garbage cans. Smart fella, that John.

As we left, he demonstrated Chicago's in vehicle parking meter system. You use your cell phone and input the "zone" and the amount of time you need. The gizmo in your car then turns on from a signal sent out over the phone network, and allows the officers to know that you have paid and that you input the correct zone. He did note that there was a problem one day before Christmas, and he got a ticket. He appealed the ticket and was politely told to "stuff it." Not being one to allow the Parking tough guys (my words not his) in the Windy City to get by with a mistake, he called on Bea Reyna Hickey, the Goddess of Goddesses and Gods in Chicago's Parking world. She did get the ticket "fixed."

My next stop was Bea's office and my discussion, strangely enough, involved in car meters and pay by Cell Phone.

If you have met Bea Reyna Hickey, you know that she knows her stuff and isn't afraid to tell you her opinion. She told me that they were pilot testing the in car meter and PBCP (Pay By Cell Phone) because their major criterion was that their enforcement staff be able to write tickets exactly the way they do now, with up close and personal contact between the officer and the offending vehicle. Seventy percent of the tickets are written in Chicago are written by the police and the local constabulary didn't cotton to having any additional equipment to schlep around on their beats, nor did those members of the "thin blue line" want to go back to school and learn how to use more complex equipment than a pencil and night stick. So rather than attempt to move the mountain, she took an approach that solved all the problems: Ease of enforcement and convenience for the patron.

The "in car meter' allows the enforcement staff of all types to check to see if the car is in violation, AND it allows the user the convenience of PBCP. What more, said Bea, could one want.

I mentioned John Hammerschlag and she looked at me, slightly puzzled. I mentioned it in context of a parking ticket, and she smiled and said "Ahhhh…."

Seems friend John is in fact one of the 1000 people in Chicago on the test program and its true that she "fixed" his ticket. Now, however, the rest of the story. What follows may not be completely accurate, but you will get the pont.

There was a problem with the ticket and it shouldn't have been written. However all persons in the pilot program had been told, many times, according to Bea, to contest citations through a special "hot line" set up specifically to handle such problems. John attempted to dispute the ticket in the normal manner. Therein lies the rub. The city had decided to "go easy" on the pilot users and also, understanding the nuances of the PBCP and in car meter program, had trained folks to deal with the unique issues that may be involved, one being the way a date is written on the citation and by the system.

If I wrote 9/12/2008 you would assume that the date was September, 12, 2008, However if I was in Ireland, the homeland for the system Chicago was testing, 9/12/2008 would mean the 9th of December, 2008.

John had parked in an area when it was "free" on the weekend, and didn't activate his meter, however when he complained using the standard complaint procedure and his citation was looked it up on the computer, they saw the date and told him that the citation was valid. He had no alternative but to kick the problem upstairs, all the way upstairs.

As usual, Bea is impressive. She has a mind like a vault, and remembers everything. You don't argue with her unless you are prepared to lose.

More on the "Chicago Trip" later.

JVH

 

5 Star and System Merge

I met last week this System Parking's President John Phillips and got a "heads up" on this tidbit. John was very happy with the prospects of doing business with 5 Star. Here's a bit of their newsrelease:

The L&R Group of Companies, ("L&R") headquartered in Los Angeles, California, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of System Parking, Inc. ("System"), headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. This acquisition integrates System into one of the nation's largest parking organizations, bringing together Five Star Parking, WallyPark, Joe's Auto Parks and System Parking, Inc. all under one roof. The inclusion of System into the L&R Group of Companies adds an additional 250 locations and creates a company that employs over 5,000 employees in 28 Cities in 17 States from coast to coast. L&R's business model differentiates itself from other national parking operators, as L&R not only operates parking facilities under its four brand names, but also owns a significant national parking real estate portfolio in 12 states. The L&R Group of Companies has a significant airport, off-airport, government contracts division and a construction division which builds new state of the art parking facilities. L&R will maintain the System Parking brand name and management team, will expand System's ability to enter into airport, off-airport, and government contracts, and will enable System to more actively participate in real estate ventures and construction opportunities. In turn, System will allow the L&R Companies to expand its operations into the hotel and hospital parking sectors with a strong market share in Chicago, Illinois.

"This acquisition combines one of the best known brand names in parking for the past 88 years, System Parking, Inc., with one of the largest parking real estate portfolios in the nation, the L&R Group of Companies. The result is a powerful business model of complete vertical integration, and a deeper national platform to service our clients from coast to coast," said Chief Executive Officer David Damus. "This merger combines two complementary firms to create a new company that will be an innovative industry leader for years to come."

"The merger with L&R is a transformational event in the 88-year history of System Parking," said John Phillips, CEO of System Parking. The company will continue to be based at its current location in Chicago, Illinois. System Parking will be a wholly owned division of The L&R Group of Companies.

This acquisition will increase 5 Star's size by 244 locations.

 

JVH

He's got that right but they have it wrong!!!

We are seeing more and more of this.  Common sense -- even directed at oneself. According to the "Republican American" in Waterbury, Ct, the merchants in the village of Seymour are concerned about their parking, and know who causes the problem, the merchants. Read on:

SEYMOUR — Larry Foster hasn't opened his shop on Bank Street yet, and he said he already knows the "parking games" that get played in downtown Seymour.

Looking out of the window of his new store, Daddy's Goods, Foster said he can count how many cars parked on the street are owned by local business owners. Tapping on the side of a cash register he installed over the weekend, Foster admitted that he wasn't parked in the municipal lot two blocks away while he unloads heavy objects into the store.

"If everyone who either owned the shops or worked in the shops parked in the municipal lots, there really wouldn't be that much of an issue parking," said Foster.

Complaints about downtown parking problems — an almost daily issue on the minds of many business owners in the four or five downtown blocks — have crept up again. Community Police Officer Jospeh DeFelice told the Board of Police Commissioners last week that he had fielded several complaints this month from merchants and professionals.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

However the Jackson County, Wisconsin, reports that businesses in downtown Black River Falls are in a quandary. They admit that business owners and employees park downtown and take the spaces, but don't want tickets written because "ticketing is destroying downtown businesses." Read all about it here.

So let me parse this for those of you for whom it isn't clear.  The downtown businesspeople are parking in front of their stores and taking parking space so it can't be used by customers, however when the police try to enforce the rules, they complain that the POLICE are destroying the downtown businesses.  HUH?

This is one of THE problems with on street availability in downtown cores. The other, and I can almost guarantee you this is the case in Black River Falls, they don't charge for parking downtown. They probably have a "two hour" limit or somesuch rule and that, in itself, is difficult if not impossible to enforce.

I have to agree with the head of the downtown merchants who said "...talking about the problem to business people is like talking to a wall."

JVH