A couple of days ago the Keene Sentinel published the following Letter to the Editor, and the letter has been submitted to the City Council as a formal communication to be heard at an upcoming Council meeting.
For the last couple of years the city council has been debating whether or not, and by how much to increase parking meter rates, and the Parking Czar recently announced his retirement. The City even sued 6 people who were feeding meters to make a political statement, in hopes of creating a debate on whether or not the City even needs parking meters.
While the city council has delayed voting on a parking rate increase, the debate that some of the Robin Hooders hoped to spark has not yet happened.
In the Welsh town of Cardigan, a group of drunken youths smashed the four parking kiosks in town. GOOD Magazine reports, “At first this act of vandalism seemed like a real headache. The bill to fix the meters came in at around $35,000, a fee the local city council had so much trouble sourcing they had to leave the meters broken, and subsequently downtown parking free, for weeks. But as the days dragged on, shoppers and local business owners started feeling glad that the meters had been destroyed. It seems the convenience of free parking and the liberty to stroll from shop to shop without worrying about feeding the meter had increased main street storefront revenues by an average of about 30 percent and by as much as 50 percent. The boost evened the playing field between local vendors and megastores with free lots outside of town.”
Could you imagine what an revenue increase of 30% would do for most of the downtown businesses in Keene?
With the Parking Fund set to run dry in 2017, in light of these new findings, maybe it’s time the city council consider eliminating the Parking Department and allowing downtown businesses to enjoy a 30% revenue increase!Darryl W. Perry
