In the AD, I think all of the garages are $3-at least on weekends.

Dinner was tasty, but we forgot our take-home boxes too.  Grrrrr.  As far as Teds is concerned, “Once is happenstance; twice is coincidence; three times is enemy action.”  Two bad things happened; I am  not going to take the risk of a third bad thing.  Sorry Teds….I’ll be getting my steak fix someplace else.

And sorry Arena District…I will no longer go to any event over there unless I get comp’ed parking or the meters are not enforced.  I will take my business someplace where they are friendly to me….like Easton or Polaris.

“Downtown is suffering worse than I’ve seen it suffer,“ said Mike Simpson, an agent with Ohio Equities. “It’s so difficult to pull new tenants downtown because of the parking. It costs money and it’s not as convenient as suburban parking.“

Granted, office parking (lots/garages) and retail parking (includes meters) are two different things, but either way, the hurting is already there.

I would however, be very upset if they decided to expand meter hours to 9 or 10pm. I think it would really hurt all of the business. Parking isn’t much of a problem and if you have an issue walking two or three blocks perhaps you should just order in for the night :)

This move is actually very pro-sprawl when you think about it since motorists, the majority, will be even more inclined to make use of free parking out in the burbs, which they already do. The city needs to charge for parking whether it’s the SN or a parking lot on Sawmill (they already have meters in parking lots across from OSU). For the latter, installing meters at every space in a parking lot could be done, but I’m sure there’s a way to have parking charges added and separated from purchases made. Why should Columbus suburbanites continue to not only have no meters to pay for, let alone worry about a 50% increase as along as they stay in the burbs and are rewarded for it? This increase would be so very unnecessary if everyone had to shell out their part for parking their car.

Also, why is German Village listed? When I had a car, I didn’t pay for parking on 3rd, Whittier, or Mohawk and I can’t think of anyplace that has meters here. And when they say “other urban neighborhoods”, don’t they just mean some neighborhoods around OSU and the Brewery District? KL, OTE, Fton, Hilltop, Clintonville, etc they all have “free” on-street parking.

A large percentage of businesses are owner/ operator staffed by one or two people. Most of whom are local and don’t need to drive. Of the restaurants with a larger percentage of staff that do commute it still doesn’t make much of a dent in metered parking.

On parking meter turnover in the Short North during the day, turning over meters doesn’t appear to be a problem. Even in the Macs lot and along Park street where a quarter still buys a decent amount of time on the meter.

The issue of metered parking during the day in the Short North is more of a cultural issue than a problem of no meters being available to park at. They’re plenty. People just don’t want to walk two or three minutes down the street. Most of that is laziness, some of it is people are afraid of letting their car out of their sight because they’re being shaken down by bums and some of it is just plain confusion, which the rate increase with no improved parking meters will perpetuate.

That confusion will lead to more people bad mouthing downtown when they get the inevitable tickets and it will destroy more economic value downtown than it creates.

“I can park at Easton for free. Why would I come downtown to eat and shop?” – I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard that remark from suburbanites.