Residents, merchants say 'We don't want them'

“They don’t work.”

“We don’t want them.”

“They’re chasing people away.”

“They are putting us out of business.”

“Bag them now and figure it out later.”

Those were just some of the comments downtown residents and merchants threw out about parking meters during a city parking-management forum held Feb. 23.

City Parking Manager Mark Lyons had billed the forum as an opportunity for the public to discuss how to improve the parking-meter program.

But not one of the more than 50 people present at the Selby Public Library event stuck to that agenda, despite the efforts of Lyons and moderator David Braine to prompt them to do so.

Lyons opened the forum by asking for a dialogue about how the meter system could be made “more workable.”

Residents and merchants immediately began sounding off on the program. After Lyons posted a list of questions on a project, seeking suggestions for improvements, few answers came from the audience.

“We didn’t come here to hear your justifications on a program that’s succeeded in closing businesses I used to enjoy shopping at,” said Marcia Dahlquist.

She walked out of the meeting, after she was told the forum would not entertain discussions about meter removal and more user-friendly equipment.

Little did Dahlquist know her comments had set the tone for the rest of the hour-and-a-half-long session.

European Focus Main Street merchant James Derheim, who led an unsuccessful “Bag ’em Rally” at Sarasota City Hall last month, told the audience, “Mr. Lyons said this program is moving in the right direction. So was the Titanic!”

Derheim noted that parking-meter-free St. Armands Circle merchants are calling this season their best since 2007, while his business transactions and those at other Main Street stores are down 30% to 40%, compared to a year ago.

Said Derheim: “Downtown is desperately reliant on a non-tech-savvy population, and these pay stations require constant babysitters you can’t afford to pay for.”

He added that when a large portion of Main Street was blocked off to vehicular traffic, during a Presidents Day weekend art fair, he had the best sales weekend in his company’s eight-year history.

“So, you tell me what the real parking problem is,” Derheim said.

Others noted that they didn’t come downtown anymore, because they did not want constant worries about how much time was left on their meters.

“Using a quarter, a dollar or a credit card is not the problem here,” said Bijou Café owner J.P. Knaggs. “It’s the frustration and hassle of not having enough time to grab a bite to eat and stroll Main Street, because you have to stay near your car before you run out of time.”

Palm Avenue art gallery owner Eileen Hampshire was the only one in the room who admitted to having been a parking-meter supporter at the outset of the program. She said she had wanted storeowners and employees to stop hogging downtown parking spaces.

“But then I started using the meters and trying to help people and looked on in horror once as a meter ate a person’s credit card and wouldn’t take any coins,” Hampshire said. “The meters are terrible. We ask you to stop nickeling and diming us to death and at least make the Palm Avenue garage free.”

Lyons and other city employees have been criticized because the usage rate in the Palm Avenue garage hovers at 17%. Lyons promised staff would consider making the garage spaces free in the future.

But the future wasn’t good enough for anyone in the audience.

“These people need help now and are pleading for mercy until you figure this out,” said longtime downtown advocate Paul Thorpe. “Let’s bag (the meters) now and try to salvage what’s left of this season and pray these merchants can survive another year.”

The comments led Braine to explain that the Sarasota City Commission had made it clear last month, with a 3-2 vote, that meters not only would stay put, but also most likely would be installed in other areas.

When Braine asked whether anyone wanted to speak in support of the meters or comment on any positive aspect of the program, the crowd shouted, “No!”

When Braine suggested the group form an advisory board to compile suggestions for the program, negative responses again resounded.

“(The commissioners) don’t listen, so what’s the point?” Derheim asked.

Vice Mayor Terry Turner and Commissioner Paul Caragiulo were the only two commissioners in attendance. Both have voiced their support of removing the parking meters.

Derheim urged the two commissioners to continue to fight for the merchants and residents and to try to wrangle another vote on the matter.

“The other three (city commissioners) apparently don’t care what we have to say,” Derheim pointed out. “Bureaucrats aren’t feeling our pain, but maybe they’ll feel it when Main Street is a ghost town.”

In an email Braine sent Lyons Feb. 27, Braine continued to argue for the establishment of a focus group to address the program, while the meters stay in place. However, he added, “Those who came to the meeting were not ready to accept the basic premise (that meters were staying put) and were focused only on directing their anger at any available target.”

Unanswered Questions
More than 50 people attended a city of Sarasota parking-management forum Feb. 23. The following were among the anonymous responses offered to city staff’s questions about the downtown parking meters:

• How can we make the machines friendlier?
“You can’t. They’re terrible.”

• Location placement and positioning suggestions?
“Take them all out. It doesn’t work.”

• Enforcement times?
“Why do they have to run past 5 p.m.? I won’t eat dinner downtown again until that changes.”

Concept Bagged
European Focus owner James Derheim has been so frustrated with the parking meters that he put a bag on a pay station Tuesday. A note on the bag read: “Free parking today from your friends at European Focus.”

Derheim offered to feed the meter for anyone wishing to park in one of the 10 spaces in front of his store. He had no trouble filling the spaces, either, he said. One man even gave him a $20 donation to keep it up.

But the initiative lasted for only 45 minutes. Then, a city meter maid pulled up and removed the bag, saying it couldn’t stay.

“Apparently merchants aren’t even allowed to pay for parking spaces to get people to park here,” Derheim said.

In the meantime, he said, he has a new suggestion for the city:

“Put all the meters on the beach and in front of Marina Jack … If we’re serious about having out-of-towners use the meters, those meters won’t deter people from going to the beach and the bayfront.”

Derheim, First Watch Restaurant, Soto’s Opitcal Boutique and other downtown merchants, meanwhile, continue to make change and even pay for parking sometimes to promote customers to come downtown.