Heads Up: Booting To Begin For Reserved Spots Next To Dancing Goats Parking Lot
Decatur Metro | March 24, 2017 | 11:06 amWell, it was bound to happen.
This is one of the most trafficked parking lots on the northside of the city. Joe – a business owner with parking in the “Dancing Goats parking lot”, was good enough to give us a heads up…
The parking lot behind Dancing Goats is shared by my business, Fleet Feet, Sprint, as well as the studios downstairs in the back, such as Decatur Yoga and others.After years of complaints about the lack of parking, yesterday the landlord gave the OK for an outside company to start booting cars that are parked in the spaces reserved for Fleet Feet, Feather Baby and Sprint.Because nobody wants to see cars booted, especially those of our customers and neighbors. On the other hand, for our small businesses to survive, customers need to have easy access to our stores.It would be helpful if you would put the word out, so to speak, that drivers need to be considerate choosing a parking spot, even if just for a couple minutes, or they might be in for an unpleasant surprise.
Photo courtesy of Google Streetview
Might? Busily driving business to other neighborhoods.
I think this is fair. I never parked in those spots for coffee, I guess I’m too much of a rule follower. That lot does get crowded, but worst case there’s street parking a block down.
To be perfectly clear:
1. The booting only applies to those few parking spots that have a sign designating them for Fleet Feet, Sprint, or Feather Baby, correct? All those other spots in the lot around Dancing Goats without such a sign are fair game for Dancing Goats patrons?
2. Patrons of Decatur Yoga cannot use a spot designated for Fleet Feet, Sprint, or Feather Baby? That seems odd. Usually reserved parking is for all the venues in a particular building. The signs should specifically indicate that Decatur Yoga patrons must park elsewhere. You can’t blame patrons for thinking that those few spots are for anyone patronizing a business in that building.
At Home in Decatur –
1) The booting applies to cars parked in the spaces designated for Feather Baby, Fleet Feet and Sprint. Anyone who is parked in those spaces who is not a customer in one of those stores gets a boot. You also get a boot if you are parked in that space and leave the store with your purchases and then go inside Dancing Goats for a cup of coffee to go. He is also booting people who are in the 15 minute parking spaces for longer than 15 minutes, allowing a few extra minutes as a grace period.
2) Patrons of Decatur Hot Yoga cannot use those spaces bc they are in classes for over and hour and it only takes 5 people to go to yoga to completely take over parking for the other stores in the building.
3) If anyone parks in the lot and then leaves the premises to go across the street to the pub or to go to the toy park also gets a boot. It seems to be the same rules as the CVS lot.
Cara, please see my question for you below…Birdsong
“You can’t blame patrons for thinking that those few spots are for anyone patronizing a business in that building.”
Can you blame them for ignoring the signs that state the spots are reserved for other businesses?
Well, I guess you can blame anyone for anything you want. But when there’s multiple small businesses in one building, I would have thought that the reason that all of them are not listed on the sign is that it just hasn’t been updated.
I would love to see the cars parked on the sidewalk booted. It’s practically a daily occurrence at the Sprint store. I’ve seen three cars parked in front of that store. Does anyone know how to get this attended to? I’ve called the police department 4 or 5 times about it.
Tom- the parking in front of the store typically tends to be employees of Sprint or people who are running into the coffee shop when all other parking is full. Those cars are also getting booted. The parking attendant had those cars move his first day before he started booting.
Cara: Glad to hear that cars parked on the sidewalk will be booted as well, but does that mean you will also enforce the city’s prohibition on sidewalk parking for customers of Fleet Feet, Feather Baby, and Sprint?
The City doesn’t boot. The boots would be from enforcement by private property owners.
Steve: Maybe I misunderstood something, but regarding cars parked on the sidewalk, Cara wrote “Those cars are also getting booted. The parking attendant had those cars move his first day before he started booting.”
Realize that the city doesn’t boot.
I think we’re on the same page.
Can’t say I love this. I patronize Dancing Goats and Decatur Yoga a lot. Happy to avoid the parking spots designated for 3 stores only especially since I can easily walk there. But it makes me less enthused about popping into those stores spontaneously, e.g. if I need socks or sports detergent that might be found at Fleet Feet or a last-minute baby present. With Amazon offering 1-2 day service for most of my consumer needs, I need to enjoy the brick store experience and feel cozy and comfortable about it. Booting doesn’t fit the vibe for me. I have to wonder if Clay would have gone for booting when he was the Fleet Feet owner,
On the other hand, if I want to stop by Fleet Feet for socks and I cannot find parking because they are taken by patrons of other establishments, I will perhaps look to Amazon.
Soooo – should the Marlay start booting all the cars that park in their lot to go to yoga? Which happens all day long.Stones/Glass Houses.
I thought The Marlay already had a booting/towing warning sign at the edge of the parking lot toward the post office. BTW, I often see vehicles parked on the lawn next to The Marlay. Isn’t that illegal in the city?
If the lawn is on the Marlay’s property, probably not. If it’s public property, it’s not legal. If it’s somebody else’s property, it’s their problem.
Where is Lyrics Only Guy ? Clearly this is an easy layup with: Shake shake shake, shake shake shake, shake your booty.
These boots are made for walking
And that’s just what they’ll do
One of these days
These boots are gonna walk all over you
“These Boots are Made for Walking”
-Nancy Sinatra
Tip of the hat for a great reply.
Irony of this situation is that many, if not most, of these West Ponce merchants and property owners requested and received variances from parking requirements over the years, often following the city’s lead in arguing that Decatur was a walking and cycling town and that meeting traditional parking requirements was no longer necessary.
Together the West Ponce businesses (with the city’s tacit approval) have created a collective parking deficit during peak demand that probably reaches from Commerce to the post office. Although the city regularly claims that parking is a sharable commodity (and of course it can be – just not by businesses that share the same periods of parking demand), business owners don’t seem to have the same attitude: almost every parking lot along that stretch of West Ponce includes a warning sign that the lot is to be used only by business customers. And for the most part, business customers in cars seem unwilling to park any significant distance away from their destination, especially if their purchase involves something as simple as buying a cup of coffee to go.
And it’s not just the commercial properties that are affected. Customers searching for West Ponce commercial parking regularly spill into the adjacent residential neighborhoods, negatively affecting those homeowners, many of whom don’t have off-street parking and need the on-street parking for themselves or guests.
Not trying to totally refute your point, but most all of the businesses on the West Side did meet the parking requirements buy the city. Marlay/ Farm Burger/ TDS properties all have parking within the tolerances of the old code.
Thanks for info on The Marlay and TdS. Online docs show that Farm Burger did receive a variance.
I’d have to look at it. The original parking plan was done before Farm Burger and Chi Pani. It was Watershed, The cleaners, and a clothing store. There was also another restaurant before Farm Burger, so perhaps going from retail ( 1 space per 200 sq feet required ) to restaurant ( 1 per 100 sq ft ) there was an accommodation, but when the development was done ( when FB building was added, and the parking lot configured, it was forced to meet requirements. It was also a general rule that developments would request accommodations that could lower requirements by 25% I think.
Progressive cities have adopted “Park Once” policies. They recognize that shared parking across public and private lots benefits everyone, and when all bought into, businesses have less to worry about via insufficient parking in their lot.
The city often states that there is no parking shortage. That is true. However, balkanized “everyone for their self” private lots result in everyone booting their own lot to protect their spaces. The long term consequences are absurd and bad for downtown and walkability.
Effective use of zoning laws, fees, and development of parking districts can engage/encourage private lots into partnerships into a shared parking system.
Simple example: ParkMobile already supports private lots (as well as cities like Atlanta and Decatur).
There are plenty of examples of other cities that have gone down this road. Google is your friend. Search on “Park Once” or “shared parking” for examples (Alexandria VA, Redmond CA …)
Thank you for suggesting a positive solution!
Boot = loot for property owners.
I don’t think that is true, or at least in the cases that I am aware of. Rather, booting is usually the cheapest way for property owners to enforce a patron-only parking situation.
No one benefits except the property owners; store owners lose a parking space and future business, drivers lose the use of their impounded vehicle, and residents like me shun businesses that allow this practice.
My point was merely that I don’t believe property owners are making money from the actual practice of booting. If that is the case, then they must of the opinion that booting is a benefit to the businesses that the lots serve.
To be clear, I am not a fan of booting myself, but I think it is a poor solution to a problem rather than being the problem in and of itself.
It’s probably the owners/managers of the booting companies who get the loot, not the stores or parking lot owners. And certainly not the poor minimum wage enforcers who have to sit for hours in hot parking lots on the lookout for errant patrons. At the CVS lot, they look really grumpy. I always give them my best smile and “hey there” so they know I’m aware of their presence and function and am only going to the Delta Community ATM. Since your have to turn the corner to get there, I’m always worried that they’ll misunderstand that I’m violating the rules. I hear that it’s awfully hard to get them to take a boot off once it’s put on, no matter how valid your position.
Why do you punish a business that is harmed by the predatory booting of their landlord?
The article seems to imply that the landlord is doing what the businesses requested.
I was simply pointing out the absurdity of Toml’s statements; landlords profiting and merchants are victims therefore he’s going to stop patronizing merchants. I haven’t been over there in years because of the parking nightmare, fortunately there is an abundance of great coffee shops around Decatur. and I’m not a Yogi or big shopper.
In response to what was mentioned above by Cara: So to single out Fleet Feet, Sprint, and Feather Baby as the only businesses that can have reserved parking is very unfair, considering that there are two other businesses downstairs: Tuscan Sun Massage and Total Fitness, both of which never have more than 3 customers at any one time and which have customers that are not there for long periods. So what about those employees and their customers? Shouldn’t they also be included on the signs that say Reserved Parking? It has been said that the building owner did not authorize these reserved parking signs. Is this true?