Sacramento's new parking meter hours - ridiculous? (Los Angeles, San Francisco: sales, 2014)

[MidtownSacto]

As reported on various news outlets, the city council of Sacramento has extended downtown parking meters in the zone bound by Front S/C St/ W st/16th (excluding the R street corridor - for now). It's also buried near the bottom of the city's press release, because apparently they were too gutless to put it in the title:

https://www.cityofsacramento.org/Cit...OTZone-Program

I'm a fan of the arena, and I was hesitant on the parking increase to $1.75 an hour, but I think this new plan is outrageous. I understand raising the parking hours and/or prices by the Arena, especially in the areas directly around the Arena and south which is filled with mostly office buildings. In fact, this is what San Francisco does by AT&T Park, which you can see here:

http://sfpark.org/wp-content/uploads...p620px_v06.png

However, you can see the AT&T special events area extends about 3-5 blocks out (and only during special events), while otherwise parking meters stop at 6pm. The Sacramento 10pm parking zone actually extends outward in at least 9 block radius around the arena, extending into many purely residential neighborhoods:

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/cit...0/parkingmap2c

I think the effects on this will be more significant than the city council is imagining, especially in those areas farther out. For example, there are a few different evening sports leagues that play in Roosevelt Park (and the leagues rent the park). Would they want to continue renting the park if the metered parking around the park lasts till 10? What about the restaurant clusters around 11th and O, 14th & O, and 15th & L? Will anyone want to go there for dinner? What about playing a game of tennis at Southside Park? These areas aren't exactly next door to the Arena.

As someone who lives within the 10pm area but not near the arena itself, will any of my friends want to visit me if they have to pay to park? This increase is really testing my support of the arena. Maybe I was naive, but I think the residents have done enough for the arena already, and to push the parking restrictions beyond even San Francisco seems ridiculous. What are your thoughts?

[MyNewsLogin]

Originally Posted by MidtownSacto

I'm a fan of the arena, and I was hesitant on the parking increase to $1.75 an hour, but I think this new plan is outrageous. I understand raising the parking hours and/or prices by the Arena, especially in the areas directly around the Arena and south which is filled with mostly office buildings.


Maybe I was naive, but I think the residents have done enough for the arena already, and to push the parking restrictions beyond even San Francisco seems ridiculous. What are your thoughts?

Where specifically did you think the $20 million per year that the city was projecting for bond servicing costs would come from? The bonds for the arena are a GENERAL FUND obligation for the city.


In addition to parking, there are plans for a 36% increase for wastewater, a 10% increase for water, a new library assessment, an extension of the Measure U sales tax, a tax increase for transportation. People who don't currently have water meters will have to pay at least $400 if they don't want their landscaping destroyed with the installation. And more is coming. All to make enough money available in the GENERAL FUND to pay for the arena.


I called my councilman to express my disgust for all of these increases and he was one of the two who voted against the parking fiasco.


My thoughts, it was hard and expensive to park downtown at night before. It will be even harder and more expensive now. People will avoid it like the plague and we will see more businesses closing.

[MidtownSacto]

I come from San Francisco (a city famous for parking enforcement) and have attended many games at AT&T Park (a stadium with about 3 times the capacity of Golden 1 Center), so I figured the parking situation would be similar. A special event zone close to the stadium with high on street parking, otherwise parking meter times were unaffected. I'm not against extended times or higher prices by the the arena, but I figured such a zone would make sense on the square from Front St/H St/O St/10th St or something like that, keeping it in the area of the arena. I don't think that many arena goers are going to be parking at the meters around Fremont Park and making the 25 minute trek to the arena, but that's definitely going to hurt all those new restaurants opening up on the 16th St. corridor.

I think the unintended consequences of this will be significant, hurting the economy of the downtown side of the city, while perhaps the east side of the city will receive a boon. Say you go to the K & 10th area for dinner and drinks at 6pm. Park at the meters around Cesar Chavez park from 6pm-10pm, and you will pay $12.25 under SpotZone parking according to my calculations. Or you can go to to the bars and restaurants around 28th & J and park for free around the Sutter's Fort meters which stop charging after 6pm. Where would you rather go?

[tikkasf]

Last time I parked on Valencia St in San Francisco, the parking meter rate was $4.50 a hour and after 5 pm, if I remember correctly, it went up to $5.00

[MidtownSacto]

I know San Francisco has some meters under demand based pricing, but I believe those still end at 6pm unless it is in a special area or event (Port of SF/AT&T park events etc).

https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/...wide2014_0.pdf

There isn't a blanket night time meter requirement covering a huge area like there is in Sacramento. San Francisco did actually add Sunday meter parking and later took it away because of community outrage. Any chance that the city council gains some sense? What's the purpose of excluding the R Street PBID from the 10pm requirement, but not excluding areas farther away than that??

[wburg]

The presence of the arena was going to hurt the economy of other businesses on that side of the city regardless of parking policy--either people will stay away because they don't want to pay for parking to dine downtown, or they will stay away because people visiting the arena will have already plunked their car on every available bit of street parking clear into Midtown, Alkali Flat and Southside Park. Arenas and other large attractions have that effect--people consciously choose to avoid them if they aren't going there for an event, because they know there will be crowds and difficulties like limited/expensive parking. To some extent, those losses will be mitigated by arena visitors, who probably will end up having dinner at some of those restaurants after the game, on the way back to their car parked by Fremont Park--or they might not. We'll see. As MyNewsLogin points out, it's already difficult to find parking downtown, even though street parking is "free" after 6 PM, because there simply isn't enough parking for the current level of attractions downtown. As a result, people park in Midtown, sometimes a mile or two from their final destination, and take Uber or Lyft there, then do the same thing in the other direction. Which seems silly to me, as the $10 or so they spend on the ride is probably the same or more than paying for parking, plus they end up taking up spaces in Midtown, which means those spaces are less available to Midtown visitors or residents. Thankfully, the residential parking permit areas will be enforced until 10 PM, which will cut down on that particular activity, at least for early evening activities, but one can theoretically park at 8 PM, have two hours until 10 PM when enforcement ends, and leave your car there until the bars close.

[pistola916]

I don't see it that much of a problem as most do. If you can afford to pay to eat at a nice restaurant or pay to watch theatre, you should be able to afford to pay a little extra for meter parking. I will agree that the plan should be enforced in the 5-7 block radius of the arena but I intend to use the garages if I know I'm staying beyond two hours before 10. So I suggest that people should to the same.

[MidtownSacto]

I can see how bars on K Street between 7th and 10th will benefit, and future developments on J Street, and the new hip restaurants that are filling the vacant downtown plaza spots. I just don't see this spilling way over into the far reaches of Fremont Park and R/15. And it's not just people being able to afford to pay who are eating at restaurants. Southside Park is surrounded by meters and in the 10pm zone... who will want to go there on warm summer evenings if they have to pay to park when there are so many other free options? Why would Southside Park be in the Arena zone? And yet the closer R Street PBID gets excluded for now??

I'm not against the idea of having a Arena special events zone, but it should be like AT&T Park, with additional hours only enforced during events, and only in close proximity to the Arena. How can anyone justify the zone stretching out to 16th & W? I don't believe there's any meters that far, but what's stopping the city now from placing them, like in those businesses along the west side of 16th between T and V, and claiming these are Arena zone??

[wburg]

A lot of cities run meters much later than San Francisco--part of why parking in SF is so terrible is because, compared to other bigger cities, they shut off their parking meters much too soon so the streets get parked up and stay that way. Attached is a photo of how they do parking in Los Angeles along Melrose Boulevard--the residential parking area. The second photo is of metered parking along Sunset Boulevard--note parking is limited and metered until 2 AM, and then no parking is allowed from 4-7 AM. But that's Los Angeles for you.

[wburg]

And here's how they do it in Chicago, and in Denver: