I sorta agree that the councilors and mayor shouldn’t have to feed meters (mind you, when they are on official city business);
The mayor and city councilors may park free in Sioux Falls, thanks to an executive order issued by Mayor Mike Huether.
Officials now can display permits in their car to avoid plugging meters or paying at parking ramps and lots while on city business. It makes city government more efficient, Huether said.
But Bob Litz’s reasoning is a bit silly;
“Other city people have an office. Other city people even get a car. We at the council have to fumble around for quarters. It was kind of one of those digs,” Litz said.
Dismissing the tickets can be a time-consuming process for city employees and city councilors, Huether said.
Litz agrees.
“The whole thing was ridiculously absurd,” he said.
Bob, you are absurd. Who has time for quarters when they are a city councilor? I think we should tear all of the meters out. I don’t have time to fumble around with quarters either.
Nothing like having ANOTHER anointed One. He has decreed that he and his court have the special privilege of not having to plug the meters like his peons.
If Litz is so uncoordinated that he needs to “fumble” for quarters, he needs help! Ah ha, that might be the problem.
I think it is fine if they use the passes for city business. They are city employees and if most city employees don’t have to pay when doing city business then why should the mayor and council? But like I said above, they should tear all of them out as far as I am concerned. When is the busiest shopping and tourist day DT? Saturdays. Gee, I wonder why?
if litz is fumbling for quarters, why does he think he can run the auditor’s office?
I have zero problem with the passes as it is a lot less burdonsome than fixing parket tickets, so it is just fine provided they are used for official city business. I don’t really worry about a little abuse either, because all it takes is someone snapping a picture of a permit being used when a councilor is at a coffee shop to make headlines… and they know it.
As far as pulling the parking meters – some cities have tried that, and they end up with a bigger parking nightmare than before. Sure you can try to chalk tires and enforce a two hour limit etc, but it is harder to enforce and is much more difficult to prove (whereas 99%+ of the time, a parking meter doesn’t lie).
Downtown businesses would also whine even louder because their employees would be taking all the spaces rather than walking three or four blocks to a ramp. Sure some employers could tell their employees not to do it, but that never works in practice, and with no available parking spaces people will just keep on driving to an area that has parking to have lunch or do their shopping. As a result, DT businesses will suffer.
The only way they can pull the meters would be if they build at least two or three more ramps and offer them free to the public, but even then they would need to be monitored to prevent DT employees and residents from parking in those spaces rather than leasing their own ramps or lots.
DL: When is the busiest shopping and tourist day DT? Saturdays. Gee, I wonder why?
Well first of all because “tourists” are just like the rest of us and probably have jobs Monday through Friday. Second of all because most shopping occurs on the weekends as well. The mall doesn’t have parking meters, but the parking lot is rarely more than 20% full on a weekday, while a day like last Saturday the entire North lot was packed all the way out to Sioux Falls Ford.
It doesn’t have a thing to do with meters. If someone wants to go downtown to shop and pay a premium for the specialty shops that can be found down there, the last thing on their mind is paying 35 cents to plug the meter.
I suppose if they were willing, they could go to e park, or parknet+ system. Let people pay using a cell phone, debit card or purchase a parking pass.
When Litz is making 100 grand as auditor he should have some spare change
Costner, my idea has always been to leave the meters on Phillips and make the ramps free.
But then how do you ever pay for the ramps? Those things are super expensive. If you don’t charge for them, then companies who operate downtown are essentially being subsidized by the taxpayer because instead of having to lease or build their own parking structures, they just milk off the city.
Downtown businesses would also be subsidized. Whereas if someone builds a strip mall on the East side of town they are legally required to have X number of parking spaces for that structure, if someone adds a business downtown they never have the cost burden of adding parking. The taxpayers pay for the ramps instead of the businesses… does that really seem fair?
Maybe they should take that special assessment and put it towards ramp maintenance instead of Christmas decorations.
Maybe we could hold an auction for all those gold shovels the Mayor has used in ground-breaking ceremonies?
Granted our current Mayor hasn’t done many of those because nobody is building these days… I wonder how many of those Munson has in his tool shed?
I would rather have a gold brick of explosives. Much cooler than a shovel.
That would free up a lot of parking spots.