If the city is going to own and operate its parking ramps, then security lighting and cameras for the Cherry and Spring street ramps are probably necessary.

The city can’t try to shunt people into the parking ramps to free up street parking for city shops and restaurants only to have lease parking clients feel unsafe in the ramps or have their vehicles damaged while clients are working. How to pay for the roughly $250,000 upgrades became a bit tougher when City Council members found out the city is facing a budget shortfall for 2024 of between $1.6 million and $2.3 million, depending on whose math you trust.

The city does have a sizable surplus that could be used and there is still some ARPA funding left that could be used for the project.

The past several months of talks about safety and security in the parking ramps makes us wonder, though, if the city should think about getting out of the parking ramp business altogether. Does it make much sense for the city to own the ramps if the city is going to outsource the management of the ramps? Does it make sense for the city to continue to be on the hook for upgrades to the ramps or, for those who remember this, to have to rebuild a ramp when it fails structurally as the Cherry Street ramp did nearly two decades ago?

It’s a similar argument that could be made in favor of the city turning over ownership of Russell E. Diethrick Park, a facility that does need improvements sooner rather than later. A city that has been on the verge of financial problems in the past has to think carefully about the assets it wants to own and whether or not it can afford the future cost of improvements to those assets now that ARPA funding has largely been used. That doesn’t mean the right project has been broached nor all the legal hurdles for such a transfer worked out – but it’s an argument to consider.

According to Mayor Eddie Sundquist’s 2024 executive budget proposal, parking garage and lot revenue is projected to increase from $6,000 in 2023 to $25,000 in 2024 – a number we doubt the city reaches unless a lot of new leases have been signed for the coming year. As long as the city is done paying the bond payments for the Cherry Street parking ramp, it doesn’t appear it makes sense to operate a parking ramp that nets $25,000 a year when it costs the city $250,000 for work necessary to use the asset. At that rate, it will take 10 years for the revenue to pay for the security cameras and lighting.

We don’t know if there may potentially be an interested buyer for parking ramps if the city chose to sell, but divesting itself of the parking ramps may be something the city should consider.