At his weekly presser, Mayor D.C. Reeves announced several enhancements and changes to downtown parking.
NEW WEBSITE: ParkPensacola.com
Mayor Reeves said, “I believe it’s not just about charging for paid parking; it’s that the citizens and the visitors who are paying this should know what they’re getting to their money.”
The website has an interactive parking map that shows all the paid and free spaces and where the parking revenue is going. The mayor said, “That will continue to be a living document as we invest dollars into parking, whether that’s the re-imagination of Palafox, a parking garage, or whatever else comes from here. We’ll continue to update that and show you how much we’re spending and where it’s going.”
He added that ParkPensacola.com will be “a cleaner experience for people looking for information, including information about citations and special events when Jefferson Garage is charging more because of the event – really a one-stop shop to make sure we have a clear understanding.”
COMMENDENCIA LOT BECOMES FREE
The parking lot next to the ferry landing behind the Holiday Inn Express will offer free parking starting Black Friday, Nov. 29. Mayor Reeves said, “That’s 230 spaces will be free 24 hours a day. So that further increases, not only the majority of our parking free here in the city, but that ratio (of paid vs. free parking spaces).”
30-MINUTE FREE PARKING SPACES.
Also starting on Black Friday, the 12 spaces in the Jefferson Street Garage area behind Vinyl Music Hall will become 30-minute free parking spaces. The mayor said, “If you want to pick up a donut, a watch, whatever you have a location free of charge to be where we continue to increase the availability of spaces by it not being two hours, which is an archaic way to do it.”
He added, “We continue to look at expanding those options of 30-minute parking around the city as we collect more and more data. We learn a lot from our paid transactions, we see where people are coming from, where they’re parking at what hours. So we get a lot of really good information as we continue to build that. We are certainly open to putting 30 minute free spaces in the future around the city in strategic locations based on the usage that we see.”
FREE DOWNTOWN TROLLEY
The mayor announced a pilot program for a downtown trolley service that will run from the Commendencia lot to free parking spaces on Wright Street. “The goal is to have a surreptitious route that runs up north and south on PalaFox Street and connects two large collections of free parking. So starting Black Friday, you can park in any one of those and you can wait for a couple of minutes and you can get dropped off on PalaFox Street anywhere you want to go. That will be funded completely by city parking funds and that will go again, the first day will go into effect on Friday, Nov. 29.”
The trolley will run Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. ParkPensacola.com will have a trolley tracker to help riders know when to expect it at their stop. Mayor Reeves said, “We will run that throughout the rest of the year through New Year’s Eve.”
TWO MORE FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS – TBA
Better Wayfinding: “If you want to find those free spaces, let’s make it easier for you to find them,” the mayor said. “Let’s do a better job of showing folks that you can be on Palafox Street and in a matter of a two-minute walk, three-minute walk, you’ve got hundreds of spaces between Spring Street and City Hall that are free all the time.”
Enhanced Permitted Parking: “What I’m most motivated to do with permits is to offer a deep discounted parking permit to city property owners and city residents,” said Mayor Reeves. “I think city residents should be paying a different rate for parking than folks outside of the city. So we are working on that. There’s just some backend software that we’ve got to enhance. That’s the only delay, not a problem. We’re moving in that direction. We should have some information to you guys early, early next year.”
