Saturday, March 20, 1999
Space for car to cost more
Parking rates rise downtown
BY AMY HIGGINS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Eric West commutes every day from Corryville to his part-time job at Mail Boxes Etc. on Vine Street downtown. If he drives, he pays as much as $9 a day and takes an extra five minutes to walk from the far-off parking space he found.
“So I take the bus for just that reason,” he said. “By the time I come downtown, the parking spaces are filled and it's an outrageous rate.”
But he ain't seen nothin' yet. Parking rates downtown are increasing, as much as $10 a month in two city-owned garages and possibly more in several private lots.
Olympic Auto Park will raise its rates, effective Monday, from $125 a month to $135 a month. Daily maximum rates will go from $8 to $9, while 30-minute rates increase from $1 to $1.50.
Cashier attendant Cheri Harris said the company, which owns three lots on Vine and three on Walnut, is boosting rates to stay competitive with surrounding lots. Prices have gone up, she said, because there's more demand for parking spaces.
“There's just more people coming downtown to park, to work,” she said. “We try to stay about what everybody else is so we don't gouge them.”
Ms. Harris said the last time Olympic raised its rates was in January 1998 — and before that it had gone 10 years without a rate increase.
Chuck Cullen, Cincinnati parking superintendent, said city-owned garages also hadn't seen rates adjusted for five or six years. City council recently approved rate increases in the Garfield and Elm Street lots, which could go from $80 to $90 a month later this spring.
“A lot of supply and demand factors are taking place right now,” Mr. Cullen said.
Demand has obviously increased: Occupancy rates for office space downtown are among the lowest in the country, meaning more people than ever are making the trek downtown. But supply has gone down — a scenario straight from a high school economics textbook.
First, the supply of parking didn't keep up with growth in office space and leasing rates, said John Schneider of Downtown Cincinnati Inc. But more apparent is the loss of 1,246 parking spaces to riverfront and downtown development.
Nine hundred of those spaces were mostly where the Paul Brown Stadium is now under construction. About 400 spaces were in lots along Fort Washington Way, including the one at Third and Plum streets and under viaducts along the way.
The city-owned Parkade lot closed March 1 because of structural problems, and took 346 spaces with it.
The loss of so many spaces, and the ensuing rate increases, have put a crunch on downtown workers' pocketbooks. It's also made some companies rethink their perks.
Bob Findley, partner in the accounting firm of Fleming Brockschmidt & Durkin, said the firm pays for the parking of about eight of the employees. Eight spaces at $80 a month costs the firm $7,680 a year. An expected $10 a month increase will cost the firm another $960 a year — and drive several staffers not getting the perk to public transportation.
Metro spokeswoman Sallie Hilvers said the bus service gave 26 million rides in 1998, a 4 percent increase over 1997. February also saw a 4 percent increase over the year-ago period.
Ms. Hilvers said the bus service has never polled its riders to find out why they take the bus, but anecdotal evidence and common sense point toparking as the clear answer.
“We do know ridership is up, and we can't help but think parking has to be a part of it,” she said.
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