|
MidCity Business Association Executive Director
Natalie Avery says the new parking rules will hurt
U Street businesses. Photo by Tanya Snyder
|
Parking Problems
Parking on U Street just got more expensive and less convenient. The city council made big changes to the city’s parking regulations, and U Street businesses might end up paying the price.
The U Street Corridor has been designated one of eight premium demand zones, meaning metered parking spaces in those areas are typically at least 85% occupied. The parking shortage has the side effect of increasing traffic, as drivers circle around, looking for parking. Anyone who lives, works, dines, shops, or parties on or around U Street knows this frustration.
The new parking fees have more to do with closing the city’s budget gap than freeing up parking spaces. The city expects to raise an additional $7 million in parking fees – a drop in the very large bucket of DC’s deficit.
Drivers on U Street and the seven other high-traffic areas will pay two dollars an hour to park, as opposed to 75 cents in the rest of the city. And enforcement will last until 10:00 p.m. Forget about the freebies on the weekends, too: you’ll now have to collect quarters for Saturday parking all over the city (not just in hotspots like U Street.) All signs and meters were supposed to be updated to reflect the changes by January 19, but a week later, it appeared DDOT had not covered all of U Street.
In Columbia Heights, the city addressed the parking shortage by subsidizing a big parking lot for Target and the other stores in the DC USA complex. But customers surprised developers by relying far more on shoe leather and mass transit than private automobiles to visit the shopping center. The parking lot almost never is more than 30% full. The city loses about $100,000 a month maintaining the lot.
Some say the problem is that street parking is kept artificially cheap, and that it only makes sense that something in such high demand should cost more. Not only that, but pricey parking encourages greener transit, like public transportation, walking and biking.
The businesses on U Street aren’t buying it. “Parking was a problem anyway,” says Theresa Watts, owner of Lettie Gooch boutique. “The extra rules will impact all our businesses.”
Watts says she’s lost customers who were ready to make a purchase when they looked out the window and saw they were getting a ticket. The customer would drop her purchases, run out to try to move the car or negotiate with the traffic enforcement cop, and then didn’t come back in to complete the purchase.
“The Saturday thing is huge,” Watts says. “It’s our busiest day.” She says evening enforcement will also hurt, since people can’t go to dinner and then stroll up and down the street, stopping in to shops, on a two-hour meter. “Why go to U Street, when I can go to the mall and have an infinite number of stores to choose from?”
One problem is that the newfangled multi-space meters – the green ones that take credit cards – haven’t hit the tipping point yet, especially on U Street, and most people will still find themselves pumping fistfuls of quarters into the old-fashioned meters – many of which are broken. Just think of how many quarters you’d need over the course of a day.
Worst of all, the U Street businesses got no warning about the changes and had no opportunity for consultation. They just read about them in the news like everybody else.
There’s another reason to protest the new parking rules: some say it just doesn’t fit into a sensible development plan for the neighborhood. U Street residents often worry about the neighborhood becoming “another Adams Morgan,” a long string of bars and restaurants dominated by nightlife. MidCity Business Association director Natalie Avery says the only solution is to promote daytime retail, so that the corridor is vibrant at all hours of the day, not just at night.
Avery says that making daytime parking more expensive and less convenient on U Street drives away daytime visitors. Meanwhile, parking is free for the taking for late-night party-goers living it up at the bars and dance clubs. It “just doesn’t make sense,” Avery says. “Taking this model and imposing it on U Street is so counterproductive to the overall goal, if they’re really serious about promoting a dynamic, mixed-use, multi-hour commercial zone.”
These may be the first of many changes to DC’s parking regime. This year, DDOT has more big plans, including paying your meter by cell phone, in-car metering systems, and “solar-powered single space meters that take credit card payment.”
Party for the People
Uber-hip “resto-lounge” Policy, on 14th and U, hosted a fundraiser for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. More than 500 people crowded in to the big-hearted bash, raising more than $35,000 for Partners in Health, one of the most respected community health groups working in Haiti.
“Unite for Haiti,” organized by federal government workers Alfred Johnson and Allison Zelman, came together with just 72 hours notice. They auctioned off fancy dinners at area restaurants (and resto-lounges, to be sure) and tickets to sporting events. Policy provided the space for free, and Flor de Caña, a Nicaraguan rum producer, sprang for the free rum punch, part of the two-hour open bar included in the ticket price. Gourmet food was free for party-goers, too – including jerk chicken skewers with pineapple chutney, potato-asiago croquettes, and Thai curried shrimp. All that for just $25 – a benefit that benefits everyone!
Local 16 had their own Haiti fundraiser, donating the $25 cover price to Oxfam America’s relief efforts. They gave out free hors d'oeuvres and beer till they ran out and offered drink specials, with 10 percent of the bar proceeds going to Oxfam. |
