Parking in downtown Decatur is about to get a whole lot tougher for those not willing to open their wallets.
A DeKalb County employee reported in FFAF – and the city has confirmed – that the DeKalb County parking deck at the corner of Trinity Place and Commerce Drive, once free in the evening after 6p and on weekends, will soon be charging for parking. According to the employee, the county has “hired a vendor to manage parking in the courthouse deck and also for the lot behind the Maloof building.”
They went on to say that they are “Not sure what the price will be, but parking will no longer be free after 5:00 p.m. and on weekends.”
Street parking in Decatur is still free after 6p Monday thru Saturday and all day on Sunday. But without the release valve of the free DeKalb County deck, one would assume those street spots will be even tougher to snag in the future.
And in case you now have a sudden urge to study up on available parking around Decatur, here’s a helpful map that’s posted on the City’s website…
it was really nice to have while it lasted…
+1
Which has been at least 10 years.
Well, if we’re going to give a billionaire $12M to build a sports complex and then waive all property taxes on that land, which happens to contain an animal shelter that we also refuse to fund a replacement for, all that money has to come from somewhere, right?
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/dekalb-offers-incentives-worth-12m-plus-for-soccer/nm8tW/
Alternatively we could simply refuse to grant huge concessions to one of the richest individuals ever to live in Atlanta. But that’d be crazy.
Nooooooo. Screw that lion, here’s something local to get upset about.
I know this will only be useful for locals, but…
http://www.decaturga.com/index.aspx?page=412 (Click on Walk There! Decatur)
Government is not a profit-maximizing enterprise, but merely seeks to promote the public good! Oh wait . . .
it’s called revenue generation. it was a nice free amenity to have, but the opportunity cost associated with it became untenable.
have no idea where the revenue will go, but if it enables other amenities or assists in paying for existing ones while keeping taxes constant do you object?
or is this just knee jerkerism for the fun of it?
OK, you two. Step awayyy from the keyboards and think about the weekend right around the corner. 🙂
serenity now, serenity noooooooow
Good points. But you know what else would reduce costs and increase revenue? Making a billionaire crybaby build his own damn playground and then charging him property tax on it! When the county exposes their incompetence with infrastructure maintenance (the Aquapalypse!), abdicates their responsibilities (and express promises!) to animal services, and now also faces a $100M+ lawsuit for illegally running Recorders Court, then yeah, my knee is going to jerk violently when they take away my free parking. Grrrrrrr.
Yup, I get a kick out of the “would you rather pay for parking or have your taxes go up” argument. Like there is not a 3rd alternative. Cut spending/corporate welfare, etc.!!!!
Please call your commissioners!
i object. its really a cost benefit issue. will the parking lot become more empty because of this? How much money will the county receive after the vendor takes their cut? The only sure bet on this one is for the vendor.
So, now that they will charge, there will be better lighting and the stairwells will not smell like pee, right?
my same thought
It’s the county so…
Rip Off!
They should invest their resources in learning how to not hire corrupt CEOs.
Or maybe more closely monitoring for improper spending.
They’ll probably spend 500.00 to make 100.00
The county doesn’t hire the corrupt CEOs, the people elect them.
They work for the County and are paid on the County payroll. They are employees.
I respectfully disagree:
“The Chief Executive Officer is elected county-wide and the Commissioners are each elected by district.” (per DeKalb County website)
Not disagreeing, but I wasn’t even talking about HOW they got their job.
Some people get elected to their jobs, others interview and go through a different selection process.
These people’s “interview” and “hiring” process happened to be an election.
But they then join the County payroll. They work for the County. They are County employees.
It was still free last night. And there was still no signage at the entrance, which has no gate across it, indicating there was a fee. If they are going to charge, they need to post the rates as you enter.
This is shameful. Cars are beautiful and loving things. We should be PAYING THEM to occupy prime real estate in the middle of our small town. I say make the cyclists pay.
add a surcharge to every pair of shoes sold in the county
no cars, no peace!
Know cars, know peace
In Soviet Russia…. car park YOU! Sorry, my kids have scrambled my brain.
HA HA
yeah tax bike tires
and lycra!
about time!
not
wle (cyclist)
They have to make up all of that lost water revenue somehow.
Just wanted to clarify for the folks calling us here at the City of Decatur. The DeKalb County Courthouse parking deck and the Maloof Parking lot are not owned by the City of Decatur. It is my understanding that the county put the deck and the lot out to bid for private management and that those bids included some much needed upgrades in the county’s deck. Beyond that we have no information about who was selected or when they plan to start charging. I have reached out to the county to see if we can get a heads up on the date.
I wonder if the new lot operators will be Lazy Parking, oops LAZ Parking, the operators of many other fine parking lots around Atlanta.
Nice to hear that upgrades are part of the plan. Could you please also let us know what the contracted upgrades to the deck are so that we can help (pressure) the county keep the vendor accountable for doing the upgrades? Thanks for helping share the info.
The only time I go to Decatur now for other than businesses with parking is…. well, just about NEVER. What a shame. Their parking lost me as a visitor. I wonder if the local business are hurting from this.
Max,
Since you haven’t been here to see that our restaurant scene is thriving like never before and new retail leases are being signed all the time, I will answer your question in the last sentence of your post: NO. People come here because of the unique and WALKABLE nature of the downtown area, among other reasons. People go to the mall because it is easy to park. Different strokes . . .
I seldom go to malls anymore either. I used to enjoy shopping in Decatur because it was better, until most of the unique stores closed and it became overwhelmed by nothing BUT restaurants.
+1
Loads of people go to (and spend money in) Downtown Decatur who cannot walk there. At least for me, the easy parking is part of the draw.
I’m sure it was bound to happen, and I’m okay with paying for parking. It’s a convenience, after all, even though I guess I’m already paying for it.
But, two things:
1. Some portion of fees should go to deck improvements
2. Give everyone a heads up and some time before you enact the fees. I get the strange feeling DeKalb was just going to stick a new sign up on a Friday afternoon without much communication…
I sure hope Dekalb uses the cash to repair the deck. It’s dingy on the outside and dark on the inside.
Anybody know if Dekalb Co courthouse employees will continue to park free?
The parking map in the article is way out of date. The city website has a newer parking map here. http://www.decaturga.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=3993
it always smelled like pee anyway.
I love how nobody even thinks of revealing their secret free parking spots! Mu ha ha….
No chance!
Amen, sistah (or brothah). Free parking is a right reserved for locals who’ve been around long enough to know a little somethin’ ’bout the place.
Shhh… I will only be parked in front of their house for as long as it takes me to get a cup of coffee. Worst case scenario, just a few hours tops
Why should all parking be free? That seems like such a suburban mentality.
People come to Decatur because of its pedestrian oriented scale and walkability, not because of vast amounts of free parking. Walk-ability and free parking for all cannot really co-exist.
That being said, I’m not so sure how many people really utilized the free parking in the county garage on nights and weekends – particularly visitors. It was not really well publicized and the garage had a reputation as being unclean and unsafe (not that there ever any truth to the unsafe thing – just the perception).
Funny you say that. Before this happened, the most common comment I heard about the free deck was “Most people don’t know about it, but…” Now that they’re gonna charge, I’m seeing suggestions that this will kill downtown business.
So the question is, if hardly anyone knew about the free parking and, assuming every single one of them uses this as an excuse to never come back, how will such a modest number of people have much impact on anything?
+1. How many of the whiners actually ever used that deck. A few mentioned that they did, but most didn’t say.
It’s just like people whining about elected officials – how many actually voted in the last election?
I won’t miss the free deck parking so much for myself but I’ll miss it for the sake of festival exhibitors. For example, the artists at the arts festival. These are the people who pay for the event (plus our beloved sponsors, of course) and it has been nice to be able to provide a perq at no cost to the Arts Alliance. Free covered parking. Doesn’t sound like much but the artists appreciate it.
But I am sure we will all adjust.
I ventured outside the zipcode last hight for an early dinner at Goin’ Coastal. VA/HI meters are enforced until ten o’clock. Still seemed to be a lot of people out enjoying themselves.
Yup. In Atlanta, any parking zone designated an “Entertainment District” (much of midtown, downtown, basically anywhere there is a cluster of restaurants/bars) is until 10pm every night. Except free on Sunday.
We visited jam-packed downtown Asheville on a Saturday and paid $3 for four hours of parking. What a treat!
Although I’ll miss free parking, I can accept having to pay if I opt to go downtown for errands or dining. What’s not so cool is having to pay for parking to attend or participate in City or County meetings, town halls, etc. I sincerely hope that both governments will consider offering parking validation to folks who make the effort to show up for public meetings.