Todd Baumgartner flips a quarter into the fare box of the Metro bus and settles in for a five-minute ride from the Firstar Center parking garage to his job at Broadwing on Fourth Street.

        The Anderson Township resident Monday tried a new shuttle bus linking downtown office buildings to riverfront parking.

INFOGRAPHIC

Map of downtown parking areas

ABOUT THE SHUTTLE

Metro launched a shuttle service Monday for downtown workers who park along the riverfront. The goal is to allow them to get to work easier and avoid long walks from where they park.   • What: Metro's “Parking Meeter” service offers rides to routes in the downtown business district from parking lots south of Fort Washington Way and near Paul Brown Stadium.   • When: The shuttle runs from 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. From 6 to 9:30 a.m., the shuttle runs every five mintues. Midday and evening service runs every 15 minutes.   • Cost: 25-cent fare each way.   • More details: Call Metro's information center at 621-4455.

        But will Cincinnati's service that debuted Monday woo more downtown workers to far-flung lots?

        City planners hope so.

        The problem is keen: Downtown Cincinnati has a chronic parking shortage, frustrating many of the 90,000 downtown workers and untold thousands more who come to shop and visit.

        About 2,350 spaces have opened since September. But most are on the riverfront, a hefty hike to downtown jobs and shops with cold-weather months here.

        And planners say sufficient downtown parking for all is still two to five years away.

        “It's a critical issue for downtown, but now we need to work on educating people where (parking) is and how to get there,” says Bob Richardson, city architect of Cincinnati.

        Parking fees, meanwhile, have jumped as much as 20 percent this year at some coveted lots in the heart of downtown, Enquirer research shows.

        Since January, monthly rates at downtown parking garages and lots — mainly those operated by private companies — have jumped by $5 to $25 to a range of $35 to $150, depending on location and availability.

        That has been a devastating blow for many downtown commuters.

        Patricia Sowell, 38, a paralegal for a downtown law firm, describes workers as the “forgotten ones” when it comes to parking.

        After losing her $35-a-month space three years ago to riverfront construction, Ms. Sowell found space in another downtown lot. But she also saw her parking fees rise first to $70, then $85 a month.

        “I only went there because I needed a dependable place to park,” she says. “The constantly rising fees became a little outrageous, though.”

        Ms. Sowell rebelled against the prices in October, when she moved back to the riverfront and began parking at a new lot near Paul Brown Stadium. She now pays $50 a month, a savings that comes with a catch.

        “It's a 15-minute walk from my job, but it beats what I was paying,” she says. Plus, she adds, “I kind of like the exercise.”
       

Demand outstrips spaces
               Ms. Sowell's new lot is one of four that opened in September, providing 1,500 parking spaces near Paul Brown Stadium. Monthly fees range from $20 to $65.

        Another 850 spaces opened Friday at a city lot at the northwest corner of Central Avenue and Pete Rose Way, under Fort Washington Way.

        The lots bring to 32,000 the number of off-street parking spaces for the downtown business district bounded by Central Avenue, Eggleston Avenue, Central Parkway and the Ohio River. Planners, however, say 1,000 to 3,000 more spaces are still needed to meet demand.

        Why the gap? Experts estimate that only 6 percent of downtown parking is usually vacant, a rate so low that most prime parking is occupied during workday hours. Analysts say cities should maintain a 10 percent to 15 percent vacancy rate to ensure prime parking is available at peak times.
       

We are not alone
               Cincinnati — like other major cities — has had parking problems since the mid-1950s, experts say. The parking woes have been exacerbat ed by the city's failure to invest in new garages the past 20 years.

        But there's another, equally important cause of the parking problem here: the loss of about 2,500 to 3,000 parking spots due to riverfront development. Construction of Paul Brown Stadium, the partial demolition of Cinergy Field and the reconstruction of Fort Washington Way since late 1997 — as well as the loss of some downtown garages — eliminated many spaces.

        Now that Paul Brown Stadium is completed, new parking lots and one garage have opened on the riverfront.

        “We obviously have a parking problem because people keep complaining about it, but the spaces needed will be added over the next several years,” says John Schneider, transportation adviser at Downtown Cincinnati Inc. His group, which is responsible for bringing more shoppers, workers and tourists to downtown, each month surveys the occupancy rates of about 22,000 spaces, or about 70 percent of total downtown spaces.

        The newest lots bring the number of riverfront parking spaces to 6,900, up from 5,000 before the various riverfront projects began in 1997.

        Hamilton County and the city also have plans to add more spaces to help meet demand in the next several years. That includes 3,500 spaces as part of The Banks, a proposed riverfront development of retail and housing.

        “That investment will eliminate the downtown parking problem and make downtown even more accessible to both workers and visitors,” Mr. Schneider promises. “But it won't solve the problem in the short term.”
       

Simple economics
               There also isn't any quick relief for people who pay for parking.

        Chuck Cullen, Cincinnati's parking superintendent, who over sees the city's on- and off-street parking facilities, says parking is just like any other business: It responds to supply and demand. If there are fewer lots to serve more motorists, rates rise.

        Jeff Jones, general manager at Central Parking, downtown's largest operator with about 16,000 spaces, says parking is the tightest he's seen since he came here in 1993.

        Which isn't bad news for parking lot operators.

        “It's a good time to be in the parking business right now,” Mr. Jones says. “But a year or two from now, as more spaces become available, it might not be a good time.”
       

Slow migration
               Parking experts say that if more downtown workers would migrate to spaces south of Third Street, more spaces in the core city would be open for shoppers and visitors. It also might force core-city operators to cut rates or lose parkers. But that hasn't happened, and it's raising concerns with public officials who are aggressively pushing the cheaper, riverfront lots.

        Of the 2,700 new spaces that have opened up along the riverfront since September, only about 1,300 to 1,400 are being used.

        While numbers weren't available Monday, it appears few people took advantage of the Metro service on its first day. But Metro officials say they expect more riders as word of the service spreads and downtown workers figure out the route.

        “I think we could characterize it as light ridership for the first day,” Metro spokeswoman Sallie Hilvers said. “We're confident that this is a needed service. It's an inexpensive alternative for those who don't want to trek all the way from the river to their offices.”

        Mr. Baumgartner said the shuttle is convenient — saving him from walking several blocks. And he can't afford the $10-a-day he would have to pay to park closer to work.

        “I hate walking,” he said. “This is a lot better.”

        One theory is that many downtown commuters — already frustrated with a parking crisis they've endured for years — may have adjusted to paying higher rates at garages and lots that are closer to work.

        “I don't know if there is a rate you could offer to entice those people to come back,” Mr. Jones says. "It's hard to change people's habits. I don't know if we'll see many major price changes unless there's a big migration to those (riverfront) spaces.”
       

Development hampered

               Talk to Tristate developers and they'll say lack of parking is a hurdle in luring tenants downtown.

        Larry Willey, sales vice president at Coldwell Banker Commercial Gerdsen Garfield Realtors, says one of his biggest challenges is convincing clients that there is accessible and affordable parking for employees.

        While the new riverfront parking will help, he says, the walk to the central business district, particularly during the winter, can be daunting.

        Delta Air Lines, for example, was convinced to stay downtown when the city offered it its own building with its own parking garage.

        Mr. Jones, general manager at Central Parking, has a different idea. He says consumers often point to parking as a scapegoat, calling it too expensive and insufficient.

        “There's plenty of inexpensive parking downtown,” he says. “There are peripheral lots everywhere where you can park for as little as $1.25 a day, but nobody wants to make that walk, particularly if it's a few blocks away from your job.”

        Enquirer contributor David Eck assisted in this report.
       

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