It shouldn’t be this hard to park downtown
It shouldn’t be this hard to park downtown
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Parking meter issues have been a point of consternation over the past couple of years – and they really shouldn't be.
A couple of years ago the city was having issues with batteries failing in some parking meters that caused some meters to stop working at all. In 2023 new parking meters purchased with a state grant in 2021 began to malfunction as their batteries died out. Some of those meters were replaced with coin parking meters until new batteries could be ordered, though some of the meters weren’t able to handle the coin payments because of the way they were shaped. Earlier this year Councilman Andrew Faulkner discussed complaints he had received from residents about issues with app-based parking meters that didn't take coins and, when he downloaded the app, ended up paying more for parking than it would have cost with coins. The city changed mobile payment vendors a short time after Faulkner brought that issue to the council. At that time in May battery backup for the credit card based meters was again an issue. Now, last week, additional issues were raised about parking meters, including complaints from Councilman Jeremy Engquist that the credit card payment system on some meters isn't working.
Mayor Kim Ecklund said the current parking meter vendor is going out of business, which is making it difficult to get parts.
For years the biggest complaint about parking downtown was parking tickets from parking enforcement officers. No one likes parking enforcement, but meters are needed to make sure street spaces are available to customers of downtown businesses rather than having the spaces occupied all day by residents or workers downtown. And, meters are useless if time limits aren't enforced.
But the meters are also useless if they don't work properly. Because the city has a reputation for giving out parking tickets, those who regularly come downtown to visit restaurants or shops are overly cautious about making sure they pay the meter. And when the meters don't work, it's infuriating for drivers who are trying to do the right thing and pay for their parking. We understand their frustration. After years of parking being relatively simple downtown because the old coin-based meters were generally so reliable, the change to app-based parking payment is already annoying for an increasingly older generation The annoyance turns to genuine frustration when the new-fangled ways don't work.
It simply shouldn't be this hard to park downtown. Shop owners are trying hard enough to make business work downtown. Faulty parking meters upsetting customers before they even walk into a business don't help.