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Customers say Santa Rosa should seek more user-friendly technology
By KEVIN McCALLUM
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Four years after Santa Rosa started replacing its aging coin parking meters with pay stations, some downtown merchants say the system continues to frustrate their customers and the city should explore more user-friendly technologies.
Bernie Schwartz, owner of California Luggage on Fourth Street, says he’s collected about 200 signatures from people who overwhelmingly support individual “smart” parking meters over the current kiosk system, which requires people to purchase a ticket and return to their vehicle to display it on their dashboard.
Jeff Negri purchases a parking receipt Wednesday afternoon from a kiosk on Fourth Street in Santa Rosa. (JOHN BURGESS/ PD)
Despite an education campaign by the city and improved signage to explain the so-called pay-and-display system, Schwartz says he continues to receive a steady stream of complaints from his customers.
“These things have stayed universally unpopular, and we have enough challenges to trying to do business these days,” Schwartz said.
City officials defended the downtown parking program, saying usage of the kiosks is up, complaints are down, and the city’s investment in its 80 solar-power pay stations is substantial.
“From an operational standpoint, I would think we would want to get the most return we can from the equipment we have out on the street now,” said Kim Nadeau, city parking program coordinator.
The city has spent about $700,000 on the installation of the kiosk system to serve 850 downtown spaces, she said.
Key benefits of the system over the coin meters are the convenience of being able to pay with a credit card, the ability of parking officers to offer a 5-minute grace period, and reducing the number of coin collection points for city employees, she said.
The smart parking meter technology wasn’t available in 2008 when the city initiated its pilot project, Nadeau said.
“The technology is advancing really quickly and every year meters are doing things that they couldn’t do a year ago,” Nadeau said.
But cost is a major issue, she said. High-tech parking meters cost $700 to $1,000 each and would likely be more costly to install, operate and maintain, she said.
Schwartz contends that individual parking meters would be superior to the kiosks in the core downtown shopping district because they would be easier for shoppers to find, faster and more intuitive to use and easier to add extra time to, Schwartz said. The meters are in use in major cities such as San Francisco and Oakland, he said.
He plans to submit the signatures he and other merchants gather to the City Council in September in the hope of convincing council members to spend some of the $10 million the city parking district is holding in reserve.
The owner of the downtown business estimated that several hundred of the new meters could be installed and the existing kiosks moved to other locations.
Pete Mogannam, owner of the 4th Street Market & Deli, had gathered 13 signatures in favor of the smart parking meters and none supporting the existing system.
He recalled one woman who didn’t have a credit card received a ticket in the brief time it took her to get out of her car, get change from Mogannam and return to her vehicle.
“She was furious.”
Other merchants said customers complain about how slow the machines are, the lines that can form, and the need to return to their car to display the ticket, all of which can be a hassle for mothers with children or in inclement weather.
But Wednesday afternoon, as she sauntered the 40 feet back from the pay station to her car before shopping at a clothing store on Fourth Street, 17-year-old Santa Rosa Junior College student Mel Rumple couldn’t see what all the fuss was about.
“I don’t mind the exercise,” she said.
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Frankly I DO go to the Luggage Store and I like it. I do pay to park but I wish the good people who are downtown – and I mean the Luggage Store, La Vera and the other places would get over to Montgomery Village where parking is FREE.
Paul, you are right. But, generally, that’s an exception, usually limited to urban renewal projects. But the idea of tax money going to the likes of developers for Big Box retail centers is disgusting. Subsidizing business is a bad idea. It’s popular with both parties, though.
Note to realitycheck: You say that taxpayers should not bear the costs of downtown parking and state that “They don’t do it for shopping centers or other businesses”. I believe if you check back when the Santa Rosa Marketplace was built after the tear down of the El Rancho Tropicano, the city of Santa Rosa (that means the taxpayers) gave that shopping center seven million taxpayer dollars for the parking lots. I’d say the taxpayers are paying for parking down there. Seven million fills a lot of meters.
Email John Sawyer and ask him. I believe he was part of that giveaway.
WOW! Only 16 comments to get to Godwin’s Law … this must be a record for the Watch Sonoma County boards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law
Downtown Santa Rosa will be the future site of a deserted town with all the effects of an authentic Western movie, tumbleweed,dust,and a few stragglers walking the streets as most individuals with common sense will be willing to use alternatives to parking downtown avoiding the overpriced,sure additional tax on the way meters. In fact many may even take their business elsewhere which would be a painful shame, and a painfull awful lesson learned.
Wow, can you imagine if our humanitarian ‘Grey Whitmore’ was on Council?
Look, they hired an ICLEI parking consultant from Seattle.
The idea, along with reducing parking by 20% downtown with ICLEI reconfiguring is to undermine what ICLEI always undermines; automobile use and small business.
What percentage of folks just wouldn’t ‘get it’. The parking consultant knew, that was partly why I’m sure it was adopted. What do you think? Maybe 5-10%? That’s a lot.
Subsidize big favored corporate parking.
Sabotage small business parking.
Ah, the sour stench of fascism.
“He plans to submit the signatures he and other merchants gather to the City Council in September in the hope of convincing council members to spend some of the $10 million the city parking district is holding in reserve. ”
___________________
$10 million ‘in reserve’ ??
Oh my, close the Parks, close the schools, raise taxes !
Two other issues I have with the current kiosks:
1. Why do they take change and credit cards, but not cash? Is taking cash some new technology that we can’t afford yet? It’s only been around in vending machines for decades…
2. Why do these kiosks still take money from us past the 6 p.m. parking enforcement cutoff, and for that matter on Holidays when parking isn’t enforced? Is there no way to shut them off, or cut off payments at certain times? To me it seems the parking division is preying on people’s ignorance. Yes, I know that it clearly states the hours and holidays on the kiosk, but many times I have stopped people from accidently paying past 6 or on Holidays despite that amazingly small font telling them not to.
The city council 25 years ago abandon downtown Santa Rosa. They encouraged and condoned malls and shopping centers out of the downtown.
The few merchants who stay and try and conduct business have an uphill battle with crazies, homeless, street bums and parking meters.
It is a wonder anyone with any money goes there to shop, buy a book or have a meal.
The council needs to clean up downtown, get the street people moving south to San Francisco where they are loved and apprciated and end fee parking.
At $750,000 for 850 spaces, it looks like we’re paying for parking primarily to cover the cost of the meters.
Is this really a good return on the money we are extracting from Downtown shoppers? I think not. Go back to free parking at the lots for the first 90 minutes – that encouraged shoppers while discouraging long term parking at no fee.
Stay away from downtown.
There is only one store in SR that I still go to. Because of the new metering system I no longer have business lunches, casual coffee shop meetings or go to any other store.
Having the merchants pay will only be passed on to consumer. The system needs to be like POS, pay at the seprate parking spot. Findinga parking space, getting out the car walking down ( in the rain, wind,etc)putting out card, waiting in line, going in opposite direction of destination, and then walking back to car, reopening the car and placing the ticket in the car is truly a waste of time and inconvenient.
Mr. Schartz is correct and if the city is collecting the revenue they need to install a user friendly system for merchants customers to collect more revenue. As I mentined earlier I avoid dowtoown SR where I used to go to.
Cheryl Woodward and her parking department pulled ALL of the meters out of the ground 4 years ago — to make way for the kiosks. Two years before that, she pulled the previous meters out of the ground citing their obsolescence. If these kiosks get replaced, this will be 4th iteration of meters in the downtown in under 8 years.
The fiscal irresponisbility of it all is as painful as the predatory parking policy iteslf. SR City Council: PLEASE give downtown Santa Rosa back to the people who choose to visit there. And wrestle it away from the fumbling Parking Department who clearly have NO IDEA what they’re doing. This is disgraceful, expensive, wasteful, and a giant repellant to all who love Santa Rosa’s downtown.
I simply stay away from downtown. The 60 or 90 minutes free was the cat’s meow. I go away from downtown, get my coffee elsewhere.
Seriously? Your listening to what Bernie Schwartz has to say.
Mr. Schwartz is a longtime agitator in Courthouse Square. Nothing, and I mean nothing, that the City of Santa Rosa does pleases this man.
He, along with other retailers with failing business models, blame parking, events, signage, etc., etc. for why their businesses are not doing well.
It’s time for Courthouse Square merchants to realize that people don’t shop there because there is little there to want.
Luggage, seriously? When was the last time anyone bought luggage at a luggage store. Stationary and dishes? Again, why buy high priced items in a poorly managed retail environment.
Time for merchants to stop blaming the City of Santa Rosa for their poor business performance.
And lord know what is going to happen to these stores when Amazon starts to roll out same day delivery in California later this year.
First, drivers should pay to park in downtown Santa Rosa. The reason is that more drivers want to park in downtown than on-street parking can accommodate. Instead of telling drivers to go away, the City built parking garages, which should be paid for by drivers. Getting people to use them requires charging more to park on-street than in a garage.
Second, the cost of on-street parking and the method of paying should be chosen for the convenience of drivers. The cost needs to be high enough that some on-street parking is always available. Otherwise, drivers have to go elsewhere.
If the City spent about $700,000 installing pay stations for 850 spaces, it spent about $824 per space. That is within the price range given for smart meters, which are much more convenient for drivers.
A few years ago, the City wanted to use about $5 million from Parking District reserves to help pay for a parking garage on the edge of the business district. Now, something like $1 million could revolutionize the way on-street parking is paid for downtown.
I say we should be open-minded at take a look at this. What are the best methods now available for paying for on-street parking? Would the money to convert to a better payment method be well spent? Would better management of on-street parking pay dividends for downtown merchants?
I applaud Bernie Schwartz for initiating this discussion.
Please read THIS STORY that the PD is failing to report. ABAG wants us to have GPS on our cars on all Bay Area cities to pay for VMT – Vehicles Per Mile Tax.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/07/18/bay-area-drivers-could-be-tracked-by-gps-taxed-per-mile-driven/
They are voting THURSDAY I think!
Free street parking is of course convenient and desirable for some people. But I’m not sure why taxpayers, who pay and maintain the streets, should bear the costs.
They don’t do it for regional shopping centers or other businesses. If downtown merchants want their customers to have free parking, then they should do like every other business, pay up.
Santa Rosa should give up the parking meters totally. The pay station clocks in my experience downtown, are not correct. They are always 2 to 4 minutes off in the city’s favor.
Why do you have to park, get out of the car, fumble around for the right change, get a ticket and return to your car and put the ticket on the dashboard in the right place and right side up. None of this makes good sense except to the bureaucrats running Santa Rosa.
There were and are many electronic options available if the city demands to have paid parking that are customer friendly but government never sees it that way.
Limit the time in the lots if you must. Sell off those expensive suvs that patrol around writing outrageous parking ticket fines.
How much does it cost the city to collect the fines with the high tech trucks and meter maids wondering the streets and parking lots? Where is all of that figured into the cost equation?
Maybe the merchants that want the new meters should offer to pay for them…
Really, how big of an idiot do you have to be to not understand how to use the new meters? The example given by Pete Mogannam is clearly of an idiot who doesn’t understand how meters work, not even the old-fashioned change meters. Sheesh.