THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 17, 1995 TAG: 9511160002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A22 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim was right on the money the other day - the money his city makes from having recently raised parking fees and fines. ``Why,'' the mayor asked his fellow City Council members, ``are all the merchants screaming about these tickets if our purpose is to help them?''
Helping downtown merchants gain more customers was one officially stated reason for doubling and tripling the fines for some parking violations in downtown metered spaces and lots, and for raising meter and lot rates. The higher fines, officials said, would mean customers wouldn't overstay their time at meters, freeing them up for more customers.
Not so, downtown merchants say. The higher fines and fees are driving business away, not bringing it in.
The mayor wondered aloud if ``we're going about this the wrong way.'' His colleague on City Council, Conoly Phillips, agreed. ``It's not citizen-friendly,'' he said. But not enough council members were present at that meeting to pass an ordinance lowering the cost of parking in Norfolk.
Some city officials will surely argue against lowering parking prices. A second argument City Hall made for raising them was that it would generate more revenue from parking, revenue that the city needs to finance some $50 million to $60 million in ``parking revenue bonds'' essential to building the MacArthur Center shopping mall. They say that parking fees and fines, paid by non-locals as well as locals, are friendlier to Norfolk's citizens than a $50 million to $60 million debt financed by real-estate or property-tax hikes.
The merchants respond that Norfolk's insistence on parking prices that literally drive their customers to free-parking malls would be only another confirmation of a couple of longheld suspicions. First, too many Norfolk officials are willing to sacrifice existing businesses to attract the newcomers such as Nordstrom and Dillard's. Second, people who feel gouged on parking fees and fines don't come back for more, so it's really no way to raise revenue to pay off bonds.
Mayor Fraim has given City Council an opportunity it should seize: an opportunity to take a good long look at both its parking policies and its dependence on parking revenues for future business development. by CNB