On WCOA’s “Real News with Rick Outzen,” Mayor D.C. Reeves explained his decision to end free two-hour parking on most of Palafox Street and increase the fees elsewhere.
“The old parking fee structure we were under before was 50 cents an hour, 30 minutes free, only for certain spaces until seven o’clock,” he said. It caused two fundamental problems. One is the availability of spaces at night is non-existent because we don’t charge at all. And second, it’s not enough revenue to give positive consequences back to the citizens.”
According to the mayor, the previous fee structure for all downtown spaces generated less than what one private lot owner made. “So it begs the question people that don’t agree with me that say it should be free. My kind of counter joke to that is, ‘Well, if you gave me the choice of leaving it the way it was or free, I probably would because we’re not able to give the positive consequence of paying for the parking garage that we’re going to anticipate that we need.’”
Reeves continued, “And then the second thing I always say is, ‘Hey, if you have a choice, would we like to have the 55,000 residents of the City of Pensacola bonda $15-million parking garage, or should we ask the visitors to help?’ And I haven’t had anyone yet say, ‘No. I would like just the residents to pay for it. I haven’t had anybody say that. So then I always counter and say, oh, then how would you like us to do that?”
Charging for downtown parking lets tourists support downtown’s infrastructure. “My other option is just to wait until we need a parking garage and then pull out our pocket liners and say, ‘Oh man, I don’t know why they left us in a lurch. Why don’t the residents pay for this?’ And that’s not how I want to do it.”
Mayor Reeves said, “Even though that might be a smarter political move to do, I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.”
Starting Aug. 1, the two-hour-only parking option will be eliminated. Paid Parking boundaries will be expanded to include:
- Palafox Street from Gregory Street to Main Street
- Zaragoza Street from Palafox Street to Tarragona Street
- Government Street from Palafox Street to Tarragona Street
- Jefferson Street from Government Street to Zaragoza Street
The hours of paid parking will be standardized downtown. Paid Parking will be in effect from 8 a.m. until 11:59 p.m., Monday-Saturday. Sundays and National Holidays remain free.
I think DC is making good moves, the right moves, for the City, regardless of how unpopular they seem. The highly vocal critics are typically not representative of the population as a whole, from what I’m hearing online in the various communities.