For anyone who doesn’t frequent the Flyer File, we posted an interesting item this morning.
According to both KFSM and NWAOnline, a lot of local business owners expressed complete disapproval for the new paid parking program during yesterday’s Dickson Street Merchants Association meeting.
The group said weekday business has taken a big hit and that sales are down 30-40 percent, so they’re asking for immediate changes. Specifically, they want paid parking eliminated except for Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings.
Hog Haus/Common Grounds owner Julie Sill said that if the city doesn’t act now, the group will be forced to take the issue into their own hands.
“We ask that you take action immediately, or we will be forced to do what is best for our businesses which is to take it to a public vote,” said Sill. “We will be starting our homework by collecting signatures.”
* If the above slideshow doesn’t load, all our paid parking photos are available on Flickr.
For more local news links like this one, including items that might not appear on the homepage of the Fayetteville Flyer, visit the Flyer File link archives at fayettevilleflyer.com/file.
Wow, who didn’t see this coming so early. Thanks Mayor McCheese and WAC.
Sales are down 30-40% because of paid parking? Really? Something doesn’t feel right about those numbers.
Aren’t these the same business peoples who supported this mess from the get-go? If so I am reminded of the infamous line ‘I was for the war before I was against it”
Paid parking thurs-sunday seems like a reasonable solution
I’m a small business owner in the “Entertainment District” and I can state as a fact that since paid parking has been instituted, sales have fallen 32%. Paid parking has all but eliminated our M-F happy hour and Sunday sales. I can be patient, but my landlord? That’s another story :) I like the idea of paid parking only for Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings since those are usually the times when parking is hard to find.
I’m among the critics of paid parking for a wide slate of reasons, and the effect on area non-WAC businesses is something that I would contend as a negative.
Still, where was this business response three months ago?
I’m just a news observer, and I had concerns about this a *year* ago. These folks actually make a living perched on these lots, yet there was no outcry as far as I can tell from media reports I read. Even a halfway organized response might have changed the days or times requiring payment, if nothing else.
Plenty of comments have said that any of us who reduce our Dickson visits out of dislike for pay parking are back-stabbers of local commerce. Some of the onus has to be on the businesses themselves, the engines of this promoted Entertainment District color and vitality. Correct me if wrong, but they’ve been mostly reactive, not proactive in protecting their own interests.
Some of the business owners bought the city’s “projected reality”. For a time, I thought it was a good idea, too.
Thinking this thing all the way through would have led to the conclusion that definitely daytime businesses, take-out, retail, etc would all feel an impact due to reducing the convenience factor on Dickson.
Mayor Marr said there’s a 90-day protest window until things normalize.
Thats an awfully long time to wait for customers to “maybe come back” when you are running a for-profit business and big rent is due every month.
Sales being down 30%-40% seems ridiculous. I would venture that it is a factor, but that there is something else going on. It is simply hard to swallow that a third of your patrons stopped coming from poorly enforced parking meters. I was just on Dickson st and I was amazed by more people being out on a Friday night than cities I’ve lived in with more than twice the population of Fayetteville.
Also “a lot of local business owners” is an example of bad reporting. How many? Who? Only one person, Julie, is mentioned by name.
Nevermind it is in the actual article just not this summary. Gotcha
@mw: I think one can reasonably conclude that paid parking has had the negative impact on sales.
There are more college students on campus than ever. More than 1500 more than this time last year.
Its not just one business reporting this. And some of the businesses reporting this actually supported the plan to begin with.
Clearly the solution is to change all the parking spots to back-in only.
@CC: yes, that is what works in more sophisticated places with a better educated driving population. Think Fayetteville is really up to it?
@BB:
It is clear that Fayettevillians are simply too stupid to just keep doing what they did before, regardless of cost.
We allz a bunch of dumnies.
I’ve been wondering if the University Baptist Church folks have to pay on Sunday mornings. I live just up the street, and I have yet to notice any tickets for churchgoers being parking in the residential spaces on Sunday mornings. None of the signs specify a respite period during church hours. Maybe the meter maids are off as well, however.
The Dickson Street parking program is not enforced until 1 p.m. on Sundays. This includes the residential zones, so anyone could park on a residential street on Sunday mornings.
About 50 people attended the Dickson Street Merchants Association meeting Thursday afternoon. And for the most part, it seemed that every business in the area was represented.
@iheartnerds – Skip’s correct. There’s an FAQs post on this page with hours/rates info if you’re interested.
Saw it coming. Fayetteville City Council and the businesses on Dickson Street got greedy. Implementing paid parking while in the midst of a recession was unwise and maybe even unjust. What did they expect would happen? If your going to raise prices, then fewer people will consume your product. It’s simple economics.
However, not all the news may be bad. I hear that restaurants and bars outside of the entertainment district are doing well. Hopefully, we’ll get a better picture of what’s going on in the city when the next HMR tax report is released.
Some people never learn. It’s the economy stupid.
I will add my two cents’ worth, my own personal experience. A friend of mine came from out of town to take me to lunch. There is a certain restaurant
on Dickson St where we have been going for a very long time. When he saw the paid parking, and the confusion of where, how to pay, he decided to
not stop on Dickson. We went to North College instead which was a disappointment to us both.
Thanks to Todd and Skip for clarifying the Sunday morning issue. I guess that means free parking for Sunday brunch on Dickson.
Was discussing this with a friend of mine. His question, “If all this business has gone away, how did the parking program generate $70,000 in one month?” I don’t know if that’s accurate. I seem to remember the Mayor saying something like $55,000, though. Still a LOT of money in parking fees for such a drop in business. But I may be drawing a false conclusion.
Hope things can get back on a more even keel soon. But I doubt they will.
Just my opinion. To which their own everyone has the right.
I went to dinner tonight(Friday) on dickson and I was shocked at the amount of open parking spots. I hate the idea of pay parking but I love all of the available parking spots.
I work at a business on Dickson…and I can tell you with 100% certainty that businesses are suffering to the extreme. For instance, a business near my workplace, piano bar sees between 25-50 patrons on Wednesday. For 3 weeks, they have had a grand total of 9 paying customers on Wednesday nights. Thursdays…one of their largest days, usually requires you to get there at least by 8…otherwise you don’t get a seat. I could walk over their at 11pm and easily find a table. There are a few establishments that are on their last month or two of being open before having to close down due to this mess.
Midweek Dickson is a ghost town. Some of the businesses that supported this didn’t think the city would take it to such an extreme. Many of the establishments depend on lower income people or college students to support their workplace. Why should I go to Grub’s when I could just as easily go less than a mile away and eat at Sassy’s redhouse and not have to deal with the parking fiasco.
The people that support this probably make upwards of 80 grand a year and frequent dickson once or twice a month. They probably love go to the WAC and maybe a drink at Theo’s or Bordino’s afterward. They don’t understand that the WAC only makes up a small part of dickson nightlife. They don’t understand or care that people that are making 15,000 dollar a year have to pay to work because it doesn’t affect them. For someone that made 80 thousand dollars a year…the equivalent to the 15,000 dollar worker to only work 200/365 days a year is around 1250 bucks. Your telling me if they had to pay 1250 bucks to work every year…they would support this?
Also, since I work on dickson, I get to hear about the local people’s problems with this. Some of my customers live next to the WAC and have to park 2 blocks away from their own house. The city has tried to sweep them under the rug. Right now they are trying to find a way to sue the city from preventing them from parking at their place of residence.
I understand that the city wants to make money and keep the WAC…but IMO the people in charge (city council) acted hastily without much discourse. They either didn’t do a feasiblity study, or didn’t do it correctly. What they essentially did was tax the entertainment district out of existance. The people on the city council, I believe, don’t want or like their jobs as elected officials. They have given anyone that wants to run against them more than enough ammo to run a successful election. Peace out.
I also forgot to mention many businesses are losing employees due to them either a) quitting because they aren’t making enough money to support themselves or b) being laid off because there isn’t enough business anymore to support them.
As someone who works near the entertainment district, I used to get my lunch down there about once a week. Since the paid parking went into effect I have yet to eat there. It’s simply not worth it when I can park for free on College or MLK.
Oh yeah, I saw this coming as well – Dickson St. and Square parking has always sucked big time, there were practically no free spaces except the WAC, and now that that’s gone, there’s zero reason to go over there. If they made the parking garage free, maybe that would help… like they would even think about doing that.
I work down there as well. It was already in decline and it’s definitely worse now. The city overplayed it’s hand, took bad advice or simply didn’t put foot to pavement enough to see for themselves. I know plenty of biz owners who were vocally against this from the beginning but you’re also aware of Fayetteville’s “no, no, no, nothing new, no, no, no” mentality. So, you try to work with it and be reasonable. On top of everything, there’s seemingly no mercy on the ticket writing but the kiosks rarely function fully and correctly. I’ve dealt with all of these situations: will take coins, but not bills. Will take credit but not coins. Go down there, this one is broken. Add time function not working etc… etc… I used my Visa for 50-cents yesterday in front of Hammontree’s because it would accept coins. They should suspend all payments and ticket writing until it’s all fully sussed out and agreed upon.
oops…”would not”
What Jeff said. City really screwed the pooch on this one. It’s the weekend warriors who pushed this the most, because they had to fight for parking spaces. Now they have their spaces. But the people who actually make Dickson go… they are the ones who can’t afford this hit. Case you idiots who pushed this didn’t know, there’s a damn recession on. But keep giving away money to the WAC, services to the bikerfest, 20k to the slag bikerfest, etc, etc… then when the WAC leaves…
“slag bikerfest”
-hahaha.
Before this parking plan was implemented, I was involved in helping distribute a petition for referendum of the new ordinances started by Adam Cat. Out of the multiple buisiness’s I visited, most were not in favor of the new program. However, a few buisiness owners and managers did not want the petitions left on their premises for fear of being viewed as critical of the program. Only one business’s representative out of more than 15 visited by myself informed me that they were for a transition to paid parking.
@Monroe Jesuser, Jr. I believe those numbers reflect fees collected and tickets issued but I could be mistaken. Those numbers are very feasible when you take into account the multitude of $70 tickets issued. One night I watched parking enforcement issue three $70 tickets to motorcycles parked on private property.
I don’t have exact numbers in front of me but from rough estimates of the new employees I have seen working for the Parking Management Program, the entertainment district paid parking would have to collect approximately $60,000 per month to cover wages and the additional yearly subsidy to the WAC of $300,000. This does not include paying for the new equipment which cost almostr $900,000 to purchase, the time and labor of city employees to install the system, or any additional employees working behind the scenes. When these additional costs are considered, the monthly income required to sustain this program could be grossly inflated.
With declining business in the area taking another blow, sales tax revenue will also be diminished. This begs the question, “How much is this program really costing the City of Fayetteville and its taxpayers and not just those individuals who frequent the ‘Entertainment District’?”
Can’t wait for the bikerfest this year. Because I’m outtie Sept. 29, returning Oct. 3. Enjoy the grit, suckas.
So, we finally all agree this parking tax sux. What now? I’ll tell you what now.
Now, the city will get PAID IN FULL (Respect Rakim) this next weekend. Let’s drain the Razorback Nation, 5 bucks a parking spot. Once we get money, let’s give most of it to the WAC, Benton County’s newest development.
Now after that, we just lay low for a couple weeks, let the bikers take over the “Entertainment District” Free Of Charge. Let’s make sure the bikers and vendors pay as little as possible since we are so festival friendly.
Before I go, remember to BUY IN FAYETTEVILLE people. The local economy needs local dollars. The entertainment district is full of locally owned businesses. Before the walk in the door you will have already patronized our newest business……………(wait for it……)
PAYFAY Parking Company. “It’s a pleasure doing business on you”
Now then, does that sound about right to you?
If so, that’s pretty messed up!
We need to just start gathering signatures to put it on a ballot. The city isn’t going to do anything about the problem in a timely manner.
FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!
paid parking is ridiculous. I hope it dies a slow and miserable death.
Has anyone seen or started to distribute a petition yet?
Midtown is where its at now.
Dickson’s Dead.
Saturday afternoon stop at Common Grounds. Pull into a space, walk to the meter and put in the space #. Then it asks for the number of hours I will be staying. Enter 1 and throw in my dollar. Ahhh only $.50 per hour nice, but no change AND I only received the hour of time instead of 2 hours. WHY?
The same meters are used in the campus parking decks and you do NOT have to enter the amount of hours that you are paying for, just start throwing in money and it calculates based upon the rate. I assume the same can be done for the meters on Dickson?? That would be a nice start…
The usual parking plan apologists seem to be absent from this article’s forum. Where are the people telling us to “stop whining”?
ASB –
My thoughts exactly.
@CoachIT Regrettably the time for petition has passed and even so, it is not as simple as just gathering signatures. Adam Cat went through the process of starting a petition a few months ago shouldering all of the costs himself. The city ordinances had to be all printed in their entirety and bound to said petition. These petition packets, close to an inch thick each, then had to be inspected by a city official to verify their integrity. The smallest incongruity would render that particular packet invalid.
It seems most often when the media or city officials want the opinion of a Dickson St. buisiness owner, only Julie Sill and Kari Lawson of Common Grounds/Hog Haus, Neal Crawford of Jose’s, or Joe Fennel of Bordinos are consulted. These establishments represent only a small subset of Dickson St. buisinesses. This is as partison as considering the WAC to be the only reason for Dickson St. to exist. Unfortunately as strong advocates of paid parking initially, Sill and Lawson’s original stance suppressed many other small buisiness owners’ opinions on the matter.
While I can’t help but revel in the fact that Sill and Lawson’s plans to develop a “higher class” patronage have completely floundered, I also can’t help but pity all of the other businesses that are suffering because their voices weren’t originally heard or given even the slightest consideration.
For the record, I am AGAINST “paid parking” on Dickson St. We just got done revitalizing the area and businesses were just starting to thrive. During hard economic times, we have to embrace our businesses and not restrict them. Paid parking restricts Dickson Street business because 1) employees have to pay to park nearby 2) some employees have quit because of the hassle 3) patrons feel it is a hassle and find other places to dine and shop 4) it cuts down on business lunches 5) college students are on a tighter budget. These are just a few reasons. They Mayor and City Council should have never approved spending your taxpayer money that they did not have on this parking project. $880,000.00 is a lot of money to implement this project. A large loan came from the city’s emergency fund to finance paid parking. We use this fund for ice storms, etc. City government should be seeking ways to improve business districts, not discourage business with restrictions. Strong businesses bring jobs and revenue to the city for our trails, parks and roads. Fayetteville cannot afford to continue losing business to the cities north of us. I have an economic development plan that can increase business revenue in Fayetteville. Jeff Dickey for Fayetteville City Council Ward 4 http://www.votedickey.com
“It seems most often when the media or city officials want the opinion of a Dickson St. buisiness owner, only Julie Sill and Kari Lawson of Common Grounds/Hog Haus, Neal Crawford of Jose’s, or Joe Fennel of Bordinos are consulted.”
-Wow. Just glad someone else notices this. It often feels like no one else matters as long as these three (and add Brian Crowne) are happy.
As someone who lives directly in front of one of the now paid city lot, there has been a NOTICEABLE change in the volume of cars in the lot behind the old Bakery Building. This wasn’t a surprise based on previous experience when one of the private lots went pay and everyone scrambled to find free parking.
One thing that folks are not keeping in mind is the change in parking flow that is going on! In the past couple of weeks I have also been seeing the empty spots on Dickson St. and the paid lots, but I am also seeing the newly crammed church lot at School and Center or the packed parking at Collier’s, and all of the new backward parking spots full on Block St. Now I don’t know what the registers are tallying, but I do know that it takes more than the casual observer to look at the empty spots in the WAC lot and say “this plan is not working!”.
Not calling BS on any of the downtown owners, but it will be interesting to see the September “Hamburger Tax” receipts for September. They should be in around the 5th of October and will be a true apple to apple comparison of all the businesses Downtown and how much they have been impacted.
Don’t forget, these are the same restaurant owners that yelled when the smoking ban was implemented a couple of years ago. A year later the “Hamburger Tax” receipts told other wise.
Just saying let’s look at the numbers before we go all 180′ and implement a crappy fix.
@ Mulleva…
Your telling me that the lunch crowd is going to park 3 blocks away so they can eat at a restaurant on Dickson? I’m not buying it. The loss of the Lunch crowd and Sunday/midweek crowd isn’t affecting them? I know of 2 prominent places on Dickson that could file bankruptcy within the next month or two if something isn’t changed. The bar/restaurant business is already finicky and month to month…30-50% of business loss affects you.
If elected as Alderman Ward 4, I would attempt to repeal the paid parking on Dickson St. I certainly would bring it to the table to suspend the paid parking. We just got done revitalizing the area and we need strong businesses on Dickson Street. Jeff Dickey http://www.votedickey.com
Not that I ever called anybody a whiner (though I’ve referred to all the whining and histrionics), but I’ve been away from the Internet for a few days and so have been unable to continue in my role as an “apologist” for the paid parking program.
If there is in fact any appreciable loos of business on Dickson Street, it is not because of normal, reasonable people, but because of people who would rather pay for $1.25 worth of automobile use in order to avoid a dollar’s worth of parking fees, or who would rather complain because they “had” to lose their lunch hour because they “had” to walk three blocks to get lunch. If you want to pass up an enjoyable meal as a form of protest, fine. But: that isn’t the normal course of business– that’s spite. You’ve built yourselves a self-fulfilling prophecy, and I guess you showed us.
If you don’t like the merchants on Dickson Street, make them go out of business. If you think they provide desirable goods and services, help them through this by patronizing them. If they are so marginal that you would rather inconvenience yourself or use paid parking as an excuse to let them go out of business, go ahead. Maybe something more worth your while will open next year.
@Jeff – yeah that is exactly what I meant! (with every ounce of sarcasm I can muster with a keypad!!!)
Of course not. The only time that amount of cars are downtown are Thursday – Saturday night.
What I will offer up is my own experience where I went to Feltner’s for lunch on Thursday and Flying Burrito on Friday. There was a line LITERALLY out the door at Feltner’s and the Burrito had 75-80% of their tables full at lunch last week.
I would be curious to hear their numbers from the past month.
Feltner’s and the burrito still have 1 hour free parking surrounding them though.
Jeff Dickey–
I just visited your campaign site. What do you mean by making Fayetteville “Business Friendly”? Springdale is business-friendly, worse off than Fayetteville, and really rather ugly, too. Is that what you have in mind?
Answer to David Franks:
I live in Fayetteville off Mt. Comfort & Rupple area. I love the beauty of Fayetteville. I want to have a park in Ward 4 and finish our trails. But projects take revenue. Strong businesses bring in jobs and revenue to complete those projects. Klipingers 2010 rate Austin, Texas (another tree city known for beauty) as # 1 in the country for being “business friendly.” There is no reason we can’t be beautiful, green and be business friendly. We need to make sure we make wise choices about projects and ordinances that don’t restrict business such as what paid parking did for Dickson Street. It hurt business. Did we actually see how the public would react to it before we implemented it? Doing things that help business rather than hurt business. I have a business initiative that will help Fayetteville, but still keep it beautiful. Fayetteville is entirely different than Springdale. We would keep our own identity but create jobs and revenue.
The City of Fayetteville paid an independent firm to analyze Fayetteville in Dec 2008. This firm, Eva Klein & Associates, wrote a SWOT (Strengths & Weakness report). The report stated Fayetteville was business unfriendly and that our city branding was weak. We can learn from many of these things and improve upon them. Jeff Dickey for Fayetteville City Council Ward 4 http://www.votedickey.com
Jeff Dickey–
So far, paid parking appears to have had a negative impact on businesses on Dickson Street, but that doesn’t mean that Fayetteville is not business-friendly (other Fayetteville businesses haven’t been restricted in taking up the slack); it means that the paid parking system hasn’t been fine-tuned or become a habit, and that a lot of people would cut off their noses to spite their faces.
Have you been to Austin lately? The traffic congestion and grotesque amount of square footage of freeway per capita don’t sell the place to me: if that’s business-friendly, include me out. However, Austin once had the best-funded bus system in the country, thanks to a half-cent sales tax for mass transit. Would you push for that?
@David Franks:
I don’t understand why it matters WHY people are avoiding Dickson because of the paid parking.
The bottom line is they are, and its a problem.
I went to Dickson this weekend for a bit, but didn’t stay long. Its just a hassle to have to worry about your meter running out. Its like being on a clock, and it kinda kills part of the fun of being down there.
Its an added stressor and it kills some of the convenience of going down there.
MOST of the people who would visit Dickson for lunch don’t waste gas going somewhere else. They already live and work closer to those other places. Throw in paid parking and it just makes them even less likely to head downtown for lunch.
The proof is in the tax receipts. If the powers that be won’t be satisfied until some entrepreneurs fail, then it will happen.
Most of the city leaders we have right now have never run a for-profit business and so they aren’t really in tune with what that means.
Don’t blame the patrons for staying away out of “spite”. Blame the city for not thinking things through.
@ David Franks:
I was merely just comparing Austin in being a Tree City and also being business friendly at the same time. Comparing traffic in Austin to Fayetteville would not be a good comparison as Austin is a capital and nearly 4 million people. I do not wish to raise taxes, but fine tune our business relationships and make our city fiscally responsible in taking care of our core services. A city is as only as strong as our people and businesses. An independent analysis on the City of Fayetteville and paid for by the City of Fayetteville was performed in December of 2008 by Eva Klein & Associates. This SWOT analysis is available online from the city website. It is 129 pages long and details the strengths and weaknesses of the city. It details that Fayetteville is business unfriendly. It also details that a “Light Rail” system would destroy the tax base in Fayetteville. I am against a 1 Billion dollar light rail system. I am for being fiscally responsible with tax payer money and making sure all of our core services are taken care of.
You are right in that the City did not purposely implement a paid parking to destroy business. However, since the city did not fully study the impact and assess how the public would react, then the city is at fault. Spending $880,000.00 on paid parking terminals when the city did not have the money (a good portion had to be borrowed from our Emergency reserves as a loan) was not exactly fiscally responsible. As a city, we have to be sure of the full impact of a project before approving it. Jeff Dickey
Anybody who chooses to walk some distance (and so have to hurry through a meal) rather than pay for parking, then complains about the walk, is doing so out of spite. Anybody who chooses to drive extra miles in noon or after-work traffic in order to avoid paying for parking– and incurs more in vehicle costs than the cost to park– is doing so out of poor judgment, if not spite. If they complain about it, it’s probably spite.
The point is, they choose to incur some greater cost to themselves in order to avoid paying for parking. And a lot of them complain about it, as if they should be proud of their poor choices. That surely sounds like spite to me.
Jeff Dickey–
Thank you for your replies.
All the parking around the University of Texas at Austin (including Guadalupe Avenue, which is Austin’s Dickson Street) is paid or restricted. Students, tourists, and office workers seem to do just fine with it.
The city attempted to assess the impact of the parking plan by studying paid parking in other cities, holding public meetings, and publicizing the procedure as much as possible. I would hardly blame the city for a lack of public input that might have made the immediate impact more clear. Further, I really don’t think that the effect so far is indicative of the actual impact. (Nor do I believe that the city’s projections are any more accurate.)
The paid parking scheme is the first step in a system that will have to be fine-tuned as to programming the equipment, hours of enforcement, and so on.
It also is a change that people will have to get into the habit of using. There has not yet been time for either of these conditions to occur.
@ Jeff Dickey:
How will having a light rail system destroy the tax base in Fayetteville? It’s too expensive?
For J. Liz:
The Eva Klein & Associates SWOT (Strength & Weaknesses) analysis written for the city specifically states that the “Light Rail System” would be cost prohibitive at nearly $1 Billion dollars and that it would destroy the tax base in Fayetteville by sending business to the north by making Fayetteville a living quarters and sending people to work, shop and play to the north. They believe people would only live in Fayetteville, but actually work and shop in Rogers & Bentonville area. This SWOT analysis was paid for by the City of Fayetteville and is available on the City website. It was written in December of 2008. While it sounds great, it is a dream for a city that really does not even have an adequate public transportation system currently.
Jeff Dickey -
The Coody folks paid Eva Klein & Associates over $100,000 for 36 hours to tell us what any reasonable Fayetteville person or UA business professor already knew. What an incredible waste…what an example of a expert being “someone from out of town.” The Klein report is REMARKABLY similar to reports done for other very different cities. Expensive boilerplate, in other words. Or overpriced BS, in plainer words. Klein knows NOTHING about Fayetteville. She just collected her buddy-buddy check from her Coody connections.
Not being willing to consider a light rail system brands you as a Luddite, imho. NW Arkansas is a NATURAL for a light rail system.
Sheesh – So, where do you plan for the $1 Billion to come from to build it? Our revenue is down from $28 Million in 2008 to nearly $26 Million now. Ever how great it may be, it comes at an enormous cost. Money we simply don’t have. We have to be fiscally responsible first in making sure our core services of our city are taken care of first.
@David Franks
You seem to think that people who eat on Dickson aren’t having to drive any appreciable distance to get there. For most people who eat on Dickson there are other alternatives an equal distance or closer to their residence or place of work.
What about handicapped parking? Many people that are handicapped are on limited incomes. I’d like for someone to tell someone else in a wheelchair that if they want to park for free, then park a couple extra blocks away and walk. That’s what I hear from most proponents of paid parking. I’m sorry, but there are too many flaws in this system and the city doesn’t seem to care about any thing but they $$$ being brought in.
Michael–
That’s a good point, and it ties in with the fact that Fayetteville is not losing business because of paid parking.
J.Liz–
Light rail is very expensive per mile to build and equip. Because it serves a narrow corridor compared to a bus system, it requires adjunct facilities such as park-and-ride lots and shuttles in order to be useful to an adequate rider population– particularly if the corridor lacks resident density. It therefore takes a long time for the revenue from a reasonable fare/passenger/mile to pay for it.
David-
Definitely agree that Fayetteville businesses as a whole aren’t going to be hurt. There are numerous ones outside of the ‘entertainment district’ more than happy to see the extra customers come their way.
And in a perverse way maybe this is good for the Dickson area; several businesses go under and the locations sit vacant a while forcing a lowering of rent. And maybe with a lower rent will come more exciting options than another bar filled with frat boys.
Don,
Do the right thing and admit you were wrong. I know it will hurt you pride a little, but hey we all make mistakes.
[...] a meeting of the Dickson Street Merchants Association last week, some business owners said paid parking was to blame for slow daytime sales citing revenue drops of between 30-40% since the plan went into [...]
From my experiences on Dickson both as a patron and as someone who’s trying to make money, I find this argument about as productive as a bunch of kids arguing about who gets to use the black crayon. Sure, I feel for the people that live near dickson, and from those I know personally, most of them all have passes now.
Let’s look at the basics here. Lunch breaks…one hour. Cost of an hour of parking? A dollar. Also add a convenience of being able to find a place and adding additional time to your lunch hour without having to fight for spaces for the normal parking squatters.
An evening on Dickson? Two and a half hours. (Because we all know it’s not cool to go out before 11pm) Cost – Three dollars. Cost of an average watered down mixed drink on dickson? Four and a half dollars. How many are you probably going to drink? Too many. Do yourself a favor and have one less. Get a DD and split the parking space, cause you shouldn’t be driving drunk anyway.
People want everything to be great, money to improve the city and awesome stuff that “is in other cities” without actually having to work or pay for it. You think light rail is going to be free? You’ll have to pay for that too. Where’s all this altruism and free community service and donations I see everyone pouring in to this utopian ideal I keep hearing about? Well, it’s all dandy as long as it’s not my one hundred pennies I have to pop in a meter. Kind of like live music on dickson. Ever tried convincing people to pay a cover to see a musical act that’s from out of town? Impossible if it isn’t Ted Nugent or some other big name act. I’ve seen people argue about a $4 cover, as far as to say they have NO MONEY, only to watch them belly up to the bar and buy a round of shots.
Greed works both ways ya’ll. Don’t act like you’re poo don’t stink.
thanks for killing dickson fayetteville, its making the business on the square less of a ghost town!
but yea, levying more tax in a recession traditionally leads to bread riots. aka. you are pissing off the people who pay your salary so if you want to continue to have any kind of name in this town, quit spending the coffers faster than they can fill and implement useful civic improvement instead of further hurting already crippled businesses.
I guess for once a bar off of dickson actually has a chance at making it. however the decentralization isnt going to help the entertainment district but maybe once half the buildings sit empty for awhile the rent will go down and some semblance of old dickson will return again.
also 70 dollar tickets is outrageous, what happened to the five and ten dollar tickets we have always known? This is turning into a more draconian system like alot of the private lots who boot you when you fail to return to feed the meter and then charge you 100 bucks.
its hardly suprising the town is pissed about it. its alright, we’ll elect a new mayor and council that will actually listen to constituents and make choices that benefit the majority instead of the few who donate the most to campaigns.
[...] Merchants insisted that the city scale back the plan to only include Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and even threatened to bring the issue to a public vote. [...]
@Gleep Glop: Numbers don’t lie, being down 30-50% means that something isn’t working…and I understand that it might not make sense that it is having such an affect…but it is, and that is what matters.
@Mulva: The owners of Feltner Bros. are one of the most outspoken on this issue against paid parking. They haven’t been affected as bad due to free parking infront of their business…but they have suffered a significant decrease in sales.