PT's Parking Blog

Something is not right here

They city of Puyallup, WA has a downtown parking garage. They hired an operator who cost them roughly 35K to run the garage for eight months and then reported only a thousand in monies collected.

What is wrong with this picture? I know the name of the operator and its public record in Puyallup, but what happened? Surely over an eight month period more than $5 a day would have been collected in fees.

There must be more to this story. I'm open to anyone who can fill me in.

JVH

I have a better idea

The city of Worcester, MA, has decided to provide areas where on street valets can operate. They are going to designate four passenger loading zones during the peak hours when Valets operate. Fair enough. Prior to this the valets had to operate in the traffic lanes, not cool

In some cities, valets provide their own spaces. In other words, they must "rent" parking spaces from the city, by simply putting money in the meters, in areas where they need to provide their services. The city doesn't lose any revenue, the valets are happy to pay the fees, and all is right with the world.

In these cities, the valet companies also find their own spots to park the cars that are left in their care. They make deals with local banks, businesses and the like to park in their unused spaces. They pay for that space. The parking spaces get used day and night.

JVH

Surrounded by Politicians and Academics

I wasn't going to comment on this but I just can't stop myself. I attended a very fancy dinner the other night at one of the most expensive hotels in Beverly Hills. The "do" was put on by "The Rosenfield Forums." It appears that this group supports, with apparently a lot of money, forums of public interest across the country. Fair Enough. This one started with the dinner on Thursday night and then held forth on the next day with presentation by four academics, a public sector administrator, and a think tank founder. Also – Mayor Villaraigosa from the city of LA spoke at the forum and State Assemblyman Alan Lowenthal addressed the dinner. Former Governor Mike Dukakis was in evidence. He is a professor with the UCLA department of Urban Affairs, which was co-sponsor of the event.

From my point of view, everything was as expected. During cocktails I was able to chat informally with Assemblyman Lowenthal and his wife and they were nice people. Probably wouldn't have minded to have had a drink or two with them afterwards. Here, is my however…The assemblyman spoke at dinner for about 20 minutes and frankly I was amazed. I know his politics, now, but that didn't make any difference. He spoke in vague generalities, defended the legislature of the state of California which has a reputation only slightly better than the US Congress, and spoke mostly about getting projects that cost money through the legislature. HUH?

The State of California is bankrupt. We have no money. There is nothing to spend. Job one in Sacramento is finding places to save money. (BTW his wife, who sits on boards and commissions as well as being an MD, just returned from DC where she lobbied and, according to her, got funding for some project or another. That funding is going to be attached to the health care bill this weekend.

Doesn't anyone understand that there IS NO MONEY. We are in a recession. We need to do things to get business back on track. These folks are simply oblivious to it all.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Assemblyman Lowenthal was alone in his comments or position. He got a rousing round of applause from the professors. grad students, and local government bureaucrats that filled the room and dined on lobster, prime rib, and fine wines all paid for by a philanthropic organization that made its money in the private sector.

There was one bright spot. One of Don Shoup's protégés sat next to me and told me about a study he was doing on disabled placard abuse. He and his staff go to areas of downtown LA and track every car that parks on the street. EVERY CAR. He says that the only way to get good information is to actually go there and do the work. "All good information comes from the field, not from estimates or computer models" he told me. They are finding a high incidence of improper use of the disabled placard, with abuse found in more than 30% of the cases. The other issue is that disabled and those with disabled hangtags park on the street (where it is free) rather than in nearby parking structures, where the owners are required to have handicapped spots reserved, but may charge for them. This causes the streets to be jammed with parked cars, and the structures with empty spaces.

My dinner partners (The Shoup protégé on one side and a Vietnam Era DC consultant/revolving door academic on the other side) agreed that the only solution was to take the incentive to cheat away and charge the disabled for parking.

Free Market right on. Shoupistas rule, but not too loudly in that room.

JVH

Symposium on Parking, Transportation, and Pricing

Went to a portion of the UCLA Symposium on traffic and congestion in metropolitan areas yesterday. The folks I saw were typical of academic approaches – Plan Plan Plan and then tear down what you planned to build and replace it with a better plan. Nothing new here.

However Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation (founder) talked about HOT lanes – He made an assumption – everyone in the room knew what a HOT lane was. He was wrong. I didn't, however sussed it out halfway through his presentation. The letters mean "High Occupancy Toll." The idea is to have toll roads that allow only car pools (two or three or more occupants). He says the concept really works well. The roads have a funding source (the tolls) and people actually use them because they work. There are a couple of rules (two lanes in each direction, good ingress and egress) but they work. He used the 91 toll road as an example. The road is build in the center of a general purpose freeway and "allows" single occupancy vehicles, at a higher rate. They get more usage and create less angry motorists than HOV lanes.

Don Shoup gave an updated "High Cost of Free Parking" presentation. If you haven't heard it, you haven't been reading this blog but to review – There are three rules that will save the pollution filled congested central cities of the world – 1. Charge market based pricing for on street parking that leaves one space per block space open. 2. Return the money collected from the parking to the neighborhoods from whence it came. 3. Do away with planning commission based parking requirements for businesses and apartments.

It appears to be working in cities large and small – Redwood City, San Francisco, Washington DC, Ventura, and to a lesser extent Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, and the list goes on.

JVH

Parking and Traffic

Don Shoup and Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation are speaking tomorrow in LA. (There's a VIP dinner tonight at the Peninsula Hotel and of course yours truly is invited). Most of the speakers are academics so it will be good to also hear what Poole has to say. The reason foundation typically uses the marketplace as a problem solver and my guess is that twinned with Don Shoup this is going to be a talk about letting the free market set pricing for parking so people will be motivated to find alternate means of transportation.

It's a great idea. Think about it. Charge for parking what it's worth. On street parking is limited so the price would go up. Parkers would move quickly to the lower priced garages moving quickly off the streets and stop cruising looking for cheap parking. On street would keep rising until there were a few empty spaces, and off street would raise as demand required. Those who couldn't afford to park would think about carpools, public transportation, or in the end moving near the areas they wish to visit.

Far Fetched. Its already happening. Jerry Skillett from Central Parking told me that studies have shown that people are moving back into the central city in droves. Not only empty nesters, but also young couples who see the interaction with their peers in the city more of a draw than that white picket fence and a four bedroom bungalow. Its happening right before our eyes. Downtown LA for instance is full of upmarket folks who live in lofts and walk to work. Atlanta and Minneapolis are see much of the same thing.

The more things stay the same, the more they change.

I'll let you know what Donald and Robert have to say.

JVH

Parking Taxes and what to do, what to do?

Baghdad by the Bay tried to increase its parking tax four years ago and a coalition of operators, business owners, developers, and unions beat back the attempt with a full court press. According to City Park's Tim Leonadikis who led the parking portion of the defense, it took a strategic positioning, planning, lobbyists, a media blitz and a bunch of money, somewhere north of $300,000. But they were successful and the proposition went down to defeat 67-33%. Not too shabby. Plus they sent a message that the businesses in SF weren't going to take tax increases lying down. Tim tells me that the NPA has an initiative going that will host a web site soon to give details on how to fight parking taxes.

Now operators in LA find themselves in a similar situation. The tax dragon is raising its ugly head and looking at parking tax. Its currently 10% and they want, at a minimum, to double it. This is bad news for business. In a state that is already running business out of town with fees, taxes, and regulations, now is not the time to add more. The local parking group is girding its loins and I expect that they will use the SF model to help them form a defensive position against the city.

It's typical. The city has no money and rather than reduce the overwhelming bureaucracy and "shudder" privatize things like electricity, water, trash, and other like services, they are looking for more money. The mayor has "cut to the bone" and still they are tens if not hundreds of millions out of balance.

Good luck to the LA group – I'll keep you posted

Oh, and to top it off, LA can't even collect the tax that's now due. Many fly by night operators are flying under the radar and not reporting all their income. Auditors (Clyde Wilson) have come in and provided the city with chapter and verse but they still seem unable to go after the millions that is past due. As Clyde says – "They would be better off to collect the money due them than raise rates of the legitimate operators."

The operators want to put those fly by night guys out of business. San Francisco and Miami have done it by making the facility owner responsible for the taxes if the operator doesn't pay. That means the owner will hire legitimate operators and the playing field will become level. Not a bad idea…

 

JVH

Chamber of Commerce begins Anti-parking charge campaign

Wow – do these folks have the wrong note. As Mark Says, stupid is as stupid does.

In Saratoga Springs, NY, the local merchants led by the chamber of commerce have begun a fight against charging for parking downtown. I don't mean a skirmish, I mean they have declared all out war.

The Posters read:

Remember Me?

I'm the Parking Meter that

Destroyed Downtowns

Across the Nation. Now

I'm coming soon to

Downtown Saratoga.

 

Of course this is absurd. It seems that neither side knows what they are talking about. Parking meters have saved downtowns across the nation. They have ensured that parking was available for customers, created turnover when it was needed, ensured that employees didn't take the best spots, and in many enlightened communities, have provided funding for urban renewal and easing of downtown blight.

My guess is that if the local council would tell the merchants that the money collected would be plowed back into the downtown in the form of new streets, lighting, clean up and the like, this poster would be out of store windows in a heartbeat. Instead, I'll bet merchants will be complaining soon about the lack of parking in the downtown area and how its destroying their business.

But, there you go.

JVH

I’m confused

I know, it's not a new thing for me to be confused. But I thought that if you handed over your keys to a valet either on street or in a garage, that the valet company accepted liability for anything that happened to the car, not the contents but to the vehicle.

The city of Chicago Aldermen are considering an ordinance which would codify this. Read about it here.

So, if I am right, why is there a need for the ordinance? And, as correspondent Mark puts it:

The basic law of physics is that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.  If this ordinance passes the reaction will be an increase in rates, at which time the subsequent reaction will be complaints about the increase in rates, after which the reaction will be this same Alderwoman pushing an ordinance to have the "greedy" parking operators roll back rates, etc, etc, etc............. 

Of course Mark is right, and usually in virtually everything dealing with politicians. Afterall, didn't Barney Frank push for more liberal loan practices and then blame the very same banks that instituted those practices and brought about the current recession

Sigh

JVH

Transportation, the new Parking Buzzword

Wow – Transportation is the new buzzword in parking – I was looking over the program for the New England Parking Council conference to be held the second week in April and out of 12 presentations, fully six deal with transportation – and if you remove the producer from "Parking Wars" touting his program, a clear majority of the speakers are holding forth on Transportation. Now I realize the theme of the conference is parking and transportation but to me this means our industry is beginning to understand that we are part of a larger enterprise.

There is no parking facility that is not connected to transportation, whether it's at an airport, train station, bus terminal, or shopping center. Once you get in to your car and drive out of the parking lot, you are on a street, freeway, toll road, or avenue, all part of the transportation infrastructure. Just try to build a parking deck somewhere. You will have transportation planners all over you considering demand, traffic flow, and the like.

I do understand the need to consider transportation, but we don't need to forget that good parking management, facility design, security, lighting, and the business of parking needs to be stressed. If we don't, who will.

JVH

Shoup Lives…..

Shoupistas around the world will take heart at this story from Buffalo NY. The local merchants are organizing to get the city to plow more than snow in their neighborhoods. They are asking that the money that is garnered from those parking in business areas be plowed back into the neighborhoods from whence it came.

Sound familiar? It should. It's one of Don Shoup's major points. If you want to make collecting parking fees politically popular, take the money and plow it right back into the neighborhood where the meters are located.

Of course if you read the article you find that the city is hesitant, since, after all, the money is going into the general fund and woe to anyone who tries to tamper with that. Politicians feel that once they have their hands on the money, they can use it any way they want.

Using the people's money in a way that reflects is origin is anathema them. You know, things like property tax going only for those things dealing with one's property (police, fire, roads, infrastructure, and the like). If you want to collect money for schools, then have a "school tax" and ensure that ALL of that money goes only for local schools.Then you can take money collected from parking and fines and fees and put it toward the neighborhood where the parking space was located.

In Buffalo the merchants want "landscaping, benches, lighting improvements, new bicycle lanes, facade improvements or a variety of other enhancements." All this might mean more people coming to the area, more business, more sales tax, and a better and healthier community.

Right On Buffalo merchants!