Finding a free parking spot downtown isn’t about to get easier anytime soon. The city council voted on Tuesday, Oct. 25 to proceed with plans to start charging at one of the last free downtown parking lots—at River and Front streets north of Trader Joe’s.
Finding a free parking spot downtown isn’t about to get easier anytime soon. The city council voted on Tuesday, Oct. 25 to proceed with plans to start charging at one of the last free downtown parking lots—at River and Front streets north of Trader Joe’s.
The proposal combines new revenue opportunities with—according to at least one city official—grand visions of discouraging automobiles around the city. But the rest of the emission-cutting grand visions and infrastructure are lagging behind a little slower.
Under pressure from the Downtown Commission, City Council also agreed to start charging for parking at the garage on Locust and Cedar streets 24 hours a day—instead of until the evening like it is now. According to an agenda report, the Downtown Commissioners believe “the daytime users are subsidizing the evening entertainment” crowd that parks in the lot free of charge.
Its solution: start charging everyone in order to cut down on perceived parking inequalities. Both parking items were approved as part of the city council’s consent agenda, a tossed salad of items passed in one vote without much discussion.
Climate action coordinator Ross Clark says city officials are aiming to do more with these moves than boost to city coffers. They want to discourage driving and cut emissions, he says. Clark hopes it will help reduce within-town car trips 30 percent by 2020 as outlined in the climate action plan, currently in draft form. But that’s only the first part of the formula, Clark says.
“The second half of this equation is to enhance other options, including frequent bus routes from east and west side to downtown, the Pacific-to-boardwalk trolley, and enhanced bike infrastructure hopefully to shortly include the rail corridor,” he said in an email.
Unfortunately, that’s where it gets complicated. It’s easy to cut emissions when it involves bringing money but much harder when it involves spending it. Metro cut 8 percent of bus routes over the summer—a change that went into effect last month along with a 50-cent fare increase (although Metro has since signaled some routes might come back due to new grants).
Planning for a King Street Bike Boulevard isn’t going anywhere fast ever since public works failed to receive a grant earlier this year.
“We haven’t been getting any good news lately on grants,” said Chris Schneiter, assistant director of public works, last month. And a master plan for the Monterey Bay Scenic Trail, which includes the 32-mile rail corridor Clark mentioned, could be two years away from completion.
The Santa Cruz Sentinel has reported that the corridor could cost about $1 million per mile. The purchase of the rail line is still pending final approval from the federal government. The Regional Transportation Commission and People Power already had to cancel a rail purchase party last month over the unexpected hold-up.
“The acquisition is not yet complete,” says Karena Pushnik, an RTC spokesperson. “It’s not actually in our hands, I’s dotted and T’s crossed.” On Tuesday the city council also voted to move forward with a public hearing on a trial-run two-way Pacific Avenue. Residents will have to wait and see what impact that car-friendly scenario has on reducing within-town trips.
