Thursday, July 15, 1999
Downtown parking on street more costly
BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Bring extra change if you plan to park at a meter downtown.
The city of Cincinnati has increased rates to $1 an hour in the city's core — bounded by Race Street to the west, Seventh Street to the north, Main Street to the east and Fourth Street to the south. In the rest of downtown, parkers will pay 75 cents an hour for a meter.
The idea of paying more didn't bother Jock Wilson of Westwood.
“I'm just going to keep throwing change in there until I see an hour on the thing,” said Mr. Wilson, who was downtown Wednesday for a haircut.
City officials hope increasing rates will increase parking turnover, freeing more meters for downtown visitors and shoppers such as Mr. Wilson.
Many meters end up occupied all day by downtown workers who feed them to get cheaper parking than in garages. If less time for each quarter motivates workers to move their cars, the plan will have succeeded, said Chuck Cullen, city superintendent of parking.
“Some people are going to move to other lots, freeing up space for other visitors,” he said. “People who want to pay the extra money and sit there all day — we're going to take that money and use it to build more spaces.”
The increased rates were approved by Cincinnati City Council last month. The 2,000 meters downtown should be converted by month's end.
The plan also calls for increasing workday rates at city garages and lowering those rates on evenings and weekends. Those changes could take weeks to make and haven't started yet, said John Schneider, a parking expert at Downtown Cincinnati Inc., the downtown advocacy group that pushed for the rate changes.
Some downtown workers question whether higher weekday parking rates will help downtown.
“It just discourages people,” said Bob Novak of North Avondale.
But Mr. Schneider is confident the new parking rates will help free needed spaces during weekdays and draw more people downtown at night and on weekends.
“People will be surprised at how quickly things will get better,” he said.
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