Businesses owners sound off on meters

Downtown parking meters have been in place and in use for a month, and some business owners are already voicing their displeasure with them. Paid-parking opponents made a showing at the June 20 City Commission meeting, with 17 business owners and residents pleading with the board to place bags over the meters immediately, because they were killing business.

Forrest Shaw, owner of Pastry Art, showed photos of Main Street with just a smattering of cars parked on it.

Only one business owner, Eileen Hampshire, of Art to Walk On, supported the meters.

She said the empty spaces could be attributed to downtown employees not parking on the street anymore, because they don’t want to feed the meters all day.

At the next City Commission meeting July 5, commissioners could decide to bag the meters, reduce the fees or make other changes to the parking meter system.

City Manager Bob Bartolotta said without real data it is difficult to gauge if the empty spaces are due to meters driving people away, employees no longer parking on the street or the typical customer drop-off in the summer.

This week, the Sarasota Observer randomly visited businesses on Main Street and Palm Avenue to see if meters were affecting their businesses, and the reviews were mixed.

NO IMPACT
Louis Chalupa
Owner of Galleria Silecchia
“I don’t think it’s keeping people away. There’s been a question for a long time about workers parking on the street.”

Bill McCoy
Manager of Sarasota Hardware
“It hasn’t affected business at all. It’s slow at this time of year anyway. The benefit of the meters is that it’s cleared some parking spaces. I believe a lot of the spaces were used by employees. You get to know the cars, and you see the patterns of people moving them every couple of hours.”

Martin Hyde
President of Gulf Business Systems
“People who were (previously) in those spaces were long stays — employees. Every year in summer, people say, ‘Business is bad,’ and it’s contagious. It’s only been four weeks — you can’t yet tell. Sales-tax figures are the only way to really tell. I have not seen measurably fewer customers.”

IMPACT
Wendy Getchell
Owner of Lotus
“The number of transactions is off 60% from May 23, (the day the meters were installed). By Friday of the first week (of meters), I dropped $6,000. I was able to rally from the recession, the oil spill, the construction last summer, but I’m not sure I can survive this. Why do we all have to pay because a few employees are parking on the street?”

Ana Molinari
Owner of Ana Molinari salon
“It’s killing our business. We’re trying to attract people. They need to remove (the meters).”

Sierrah Bryans
Ana Molinari customer
“I don’t like paying for parking on the street.”

Vinod & Asha Patel
Owners of Patellini’s Pizza
“The city should know by now that it doesn’t work. People are frustrated. It’s hard to bring people back downtown. I can guarantee some customers aren’t going to come back. (The city) needs to do something soon.”

Cindy Mote
Customer at Patellini’s Pizza
“I think it’s ridiculous. You never had to pay before. I thought they wanted to bring Main Street back. I now park at the library for free.”

Contact Robin Roy at [email protected].