Addressing a $250 million budgetary shortfall, the City Council recently approved doubling parking-meter rates from 1.25 to $2.50 an hour.
The City manages 3,811 paid parking meters, 5,332 total spaces, 4,449 of which charge $1.25 an hour. Those rates are now $2.50 an hour, except for those meters deemed to be in less-trafficked areas. Metered parking currently exists in Downtown, Uptown, Mid-City, and Pacific Beach.
The rate increase does not affect waterfront meters operated by the Port of San Diego, which already charges $2.50 an hour. Estimates are the new parking meter rates will generate $800,000 monthly, about $9.6 million annually.
The City also waived a current requirement to share incremental parking revenues resulting from the increased parking-meter rates with Community Parking Districts, like the one in Pacific Beach. That revenue share will now go exclusively into the City’s general fund.
The council vote followed the narrow failure last November of a 1 cent sales tax measure on the ballot that would have helped alleviate this year’s City budget deficit.
Was this move justified and necessary? Or, should the City have done something else instead to cushion its sizable budget deficit?
San Diego Community Newspaper Group solicited public input on social media and email asking residents whether they approved of San Diego’s City Council’s parking-meter rate hike. Here’s what they said:
Harry Bubbins, chair of La Jolla Community Planning Association, which makes land-use recommendations to the City, speaking for himself, supported the rate hike. “A modest fee for storing private vehicles is good policy because it helps manage traffic congestion, encourages parking turnover, generates revenue for city improvements and ultimately benefits businesses by making parking more readily available to customers and visitors and will help San Diego to provide more public safety, lifeguards and fix the roads for all of us,” he said.
“It’s fine,” reacted La Jollan Glen Rasmussen. “Just don’t force parking meters on locations where none now exist, without meaningful local input as to whether we want them.”
Marcie Beckett of Pacific Beach disagreed. “Increasing fines won’t help if there is no enforcement,” she pointed out. “The City could get more revenue by simply increasing enforcement against all parking violations, including overnight parking of oversized vehicles, and RVs, parking within 20 feet of corners and near fire hydrants, and street-sweeping violations.”
Cathy Ives of Mission Beach, who started the nonprofit Don’t Trash Mission Beach community cleanup effort, said she was “torn” on this issue. “We have a City that has been mismanaged for years,” she noted. “We have numerous lawsuits over scooters, the jail, Ash Street, the pension fund, etc. Running a deficit just means cutting back on essential services. The lights are out, we have potholes, etc. Charging for garbage is OK, most cities do that. But STRs get a free pass? Illegal STRs could have been fined.”
Scott Chipman of PB felt parking meters in PB have “been a debacle. The plan was not well vetted by the community. It was ‘approved’ by a small number of participants during COVID. The community appears to have gotten nothing (no money) from the existing plan, other than more people parking on adjacent streets to avoid the fees.”
Added Chipman: “Doubling the cost of parking will only drive more cars into the neighborhoods that are already 100% parked. And building more and more residential projects with no off-street parking is creating a parking nightmare. The City should cut middle management and newer hires, not services. It has been reported that City staffing has increased by over 10% under Gloria, from under 12,000 to 13,300. The $250 million deficit is only 5% of the budget. The city population has grown by only 1% in the last few years (that is 1/10th of 1%). Cutting any services is unjustified. Cutting services is a way to punish the citizens for not giving the mayor/city more tax money.”
Bill Zent of PB was troubled about the increase. “For merchants, it is a two-edged sword,” he said. “People cannot park their cars all day going to the beach. Customers of those (beach) businesses may be inclined to go to malls where parking is free, and you won’t get a ticket. Overall, I think the City needs to reduce staffing and spending. Stay within their means. just like we as individuals have to.”
Terry Kraszewski, owner of Ocean Girls surf boutique in La Jolla Shores, characterized doubling the parking-meter rates as “an outrageous increase. Why wasn’t the community involved in the decision?” she asked adding, “It (fee hike) will hurt locals, merchants and visitors. Another City decision was done in haste, with no forethought about the long-term consequences. Easy to put the burden on us and not fix real problems.”
“Parking fines hurt the poor disproportionately,” argued Lisa Bock of La Jolla’s Beach Barber Tract. “Just like a 30% sales tax would. I suggest doubling/tripling the docking/mooring fees for cruise ships, luxury yachts over a certain size, and luxury airplanes. Stop wasting the money we ‘do’ have by ‘not’ making expensive non-helpful contracts/purchases from your business buddies. Stop wasting ridiculous ‘disappearing’ amounts on the ‘homelessness crisis.’ when the homeless aren’t the problem (property owners’ greed is and low wages). The needy never see any results from the spending.”
“While very impactful for individual citizens, I can’t imagine that its effects on the deficit will be significant,” concluded Julie Bycura of La Jolla Colony.