MM: Decatur Sets Max Booting Fee, DHS Recognized, and Critical Thinking vs. Cynicism
Decatur Metro | May 25, 2016 | 1:22 pm
- Decatur sets maximum booting fee at $75 [AJC]
- Governor recognizes Decatur High, Museum School, DeKalb School of the Arts [Decaturish]
- Primary rundown: Runoffs galore! [CL]
- Atlantans Declare Inman Park Festival the City’s Greatest [Curbed]
- Some Thoughts on Hope, Cynicism, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves [Brain Pickings]
Photo courtesy of Inman Park Facebook page
Law of unintended consequences. Less $ per boot = more aggressive booting.
So then you just make aggressive booting illegal. Problem solved!
The only alternative I can imagine is for people to avoid parking illegally or against the stated wishes of the property owner. But that is obviously ridiculous.
the only way they could be any more aggressive would be booting you before you even get out of your car.
they could start booting the drivers
So the way I read this…when I go into CVS to get a prescription filled and they tell me it will take 15 minutes. I may browse for a while or I may go grab smoothie at Smoothie King and be back in 10 minutes. I could get booted while waiting for my prescription because I walk to grab a smoothie while I wait?
Yep. Could happen.
Could happen, and has happened – to me, at least. Last summer, I stopped at CVS to pick up a prescription. I was told it would be 10 more minutes, so I went to my car to take my dog for a quick walk. My car was booted as soon as I walked out of the lot, even though I was still an active patron. The CVS store manager apologized profusely, but the parking attendant refused to budge. Needless to see, I’m all for the City’s decision.
” I walked out of the lot” That was your problem.
Yup, next time you need to walk your dog around and around the lot. In fact, around the booters just so they are sure you are still there. Do the signs say if they can boot you if your dog poops on the lot or vomits because of the heat in the lot?
Not that I’m aware of, but I’m sure Steve would be quick to point to the nearest Curb Your Dog sign.
I am all for lot owners protecting parking for their customers.
Other lots are following in their footstep of CVS. If every lot takes the same isolationist “you left our lot” viewpoint, it goes against the whole concept of encouraging a walkable downtown. As others have posted, do we really want to force people to drive from Cooks Warehouse to CVS to Dancing Goats?
I think the city should step in — not as an enforcer, but as a mediator or coordinator. There are workable solutions.
One example: Parkmobile, whose app handles Decatur and Atlanta on-street parking as well as private lots around Atlanta. According to their website, for private lots they offer vendor validation (“scan QR code for a 1 hour refund!”) Example2: the Town Square parking deck offers parking validation for guests (or so I am told). There has got to be a win-win solution that entails getting a variety of parking lots to go in together on a common system like this, that allows revenue for the lot, validation for customer parking,and the freedom for people to walk about downtown. The city can play a role in coordinating or promoting such an idea.
All of this is an inevitable product of downtown growth (I view as good), more visitors and less available parking. Surely Decatur is not the first municipality with a growing pedestrian-oriented downtown core to have to deal with this problem. This seems to be the kind of thing Urban Planning graduate students write MS Theses about …
Right now the parking lot owners who boot are taking the least expensive path to ensure that no non-customers park in their lot. I agree with Robert – this approach runs counter to the walkable downtown goal. I don’t have a problem with every parking lot owner charging people to park, but I do have a problem with having to move my car five times to visit five businesses that are within walking distance. I don’t understand the property rights crowd total defense of booting. It’s not the best way to solve the problem.
Nothing to stop you from parking in a pay parking lot/deck or metered street space and walking to your 5 businesses. Most of the booters are in free parking lots, right?
Or the (for now at least) free county deck.
That’s the thing. Some businesses have invested in infrastructure that allows them to charge for parking. That’s fine. Everybody knows the deal going in. Other businesses are going the free route with booting. If everybody goes to booting, then we will have to move the car five times for five errands. I don’t think the city is out of line by regulating the booting. It is not the best way to solve the problem. It makes us a very unfriendly place to visitors.
And by the way, the county deck charges 8-5 on weekdays.
But the county deck soon will become contracted out to a vendor that charges all the time, right? When I always had little kids in tow, I’d have to do that drive from one parking lot Downtown to another. I’d hate to resume that just because all the pay parking lots are their separate fiefdoms.
Maybe the City needs to kill three birds with one stone–develop a Downtown greenspace as some are advocating and then put a free City parking structure underneath. More park, more parking, more people spending money at Downtown businesses.
“the county deck soon will become contracted out to a vendor” I first heard that last year. There are new gates, but nothing else.
That would be the dream — city-run parking decks capped with park space. I would be willing to pay more in taxes for that (and, obviously, step 3 = Profit!).
Then do away with the requirement that businesses provide parking for their patrons.