Will New Meters Keep You Away From Easton?
Easton could begin charging more to park downtown. Will that keep you from visiting?
After operating a small business in Bethlehem, Anthony Burks said he's ready to relocate to Easton.
But he told Easton City Council last week that he's worried about the city's proposed parking meter changes. Burks doesn't like the idea of people having to "stand at the window" of his store, keeping an eye on the meter.
"You do that in Easton, you’ll chase people away," he said.
It's something I hear now and then, both in our stories here about the parking meter changes and on our Facebook page: if it costs more to park in downtown Easton, people won't shop/eat there.
So I wanted to try to gauge how many people really feel that way. Will the price increase -- 50 cents/hour to $1 per hour -- keep you away from Downtown? Tell us in the comments, and take our poll.
Jon Geeting
7:55 am on Monday, December 3, 2012
Whether or not people come to Easton has to do with the quality of Easton's businesses. People don't go places to park the car, that's a secondary concern. It's important to set the meter price not too high and not too low. How do you know? On a block where the price is right, there will always be a couple spots open at all times. On a block where the price is too low, all the spots tend to be filled all the time. The price has to be just high enough to always produce a few open spaces on each block.
Ronnie DelBacco
8:30 am on Monday, December 3, 2012
Jon has a point. Easton is not NY or Philly. When you go into one of those cities there are rarely, if ever, available spots where the parking rates are already high. My last visit to Philly took me around a block at least 4 times and no less than 15-20 minutes searching for a spot. Easton's downtown doesn't have the same level of interest as the bigger cities do and there's no way I'd wait that long for a spot down town with 25th street and Rt 248 so close by. It's much less of a headache to just go there first.
In the spring and summer months Easton is nice to walk around, and I live close enough to do that. But even then I wouldn't be willing to carry purchased items all the way back home and/or lug them around with me through town.
The increased parking fees are just one more reason to avoid down town Easton. It's a real shame Panto prefers raising more revenue (taxes and fees) over cutting more unnecessary spending.
Adam Fairchild
11:35 am on Monday, December 3, 2012
Ronnie, please be careful about recommending that people should avoid downtown Easton. I understand you disagree with mayor Panto and his administration's decisions, but comments like that hurt many people. I own a business downtown and it's hard enough to bring a nice business here and have it survive. We don't need people lobbying against downtown because they disagree with certain decisions that have been made. I'm not sure if or how you've been involved with the city, but it seems to me that trying to make a change is more constructive than idle comments about avoiding a place that many people depend on for their livelihoods. If you have tried to make change, then I applaud you. I don't agree with all of the new parking system changes, but new, more user friendly meters that can accept cards is a much needed update.
Ronnie DelBacco
12:44 pm on Monday, December 3, 2012
Adam,
Though I understand your concern about my comments, I have to disagree pointing to the overwhelming nepotism in city hall that drives these taxation and fee issues. Rather than striving for cost cutting measures and pro-growth policies for our small business community down town, Panto's administration and the current city council believe that more fees and regulations will drive business.
Wrong.
Producing and/or providing a product that people want to buy will drive business to stores. All the government can do is make that trip for consumers easier or harder. Government cannot increase business, they can only take from it. That is what Panto's parking schemes are continuing to do.
We don't have a competing voice on council and so we end up with Panto's "rubber stamp" committee. Until we elect a mix of representatives in Easton the current democratic stronghold will continue to kill business and spend our money to do it.
Katja Kruppe
8:40 am on Monday, December 3, 2012
Parking is free on weekends for the holidays, that's great. But the new meters also replaces old meters that previously accepted dimes for shorter periods and now the meter does not warn you that it ONLY accepts quarters or the card. It swallowed two of my dimes outside a coffee shop before I realized it no longer accepted that, so I end up paying 45 cents just for a quick trip inside to grab a coffee and run again. I do think that it will stop people from making those quick trips more often. In a way that is a shame because these quick trips are the ones that usually are daily rituals while the random shopping trip is much less frequent and a higher rate does not matter to me at that point.
I am also curious how the card meters work for a 2h parking period? There aren't any buttons on the meter to chose a time, or did I just not notice them?
Tom Coombe
8:43 am on Monday, December 3, 2012
The city has said it could reconfigure meters to take dimes and nickels as well as quarters. As for the card meters, I'm not sure.
Rita Chesterton
9:09 am on Monday, December 3, 2012
I think people would feel better about paying for metered parking, if they knew funds went to a specific purpose... say, one month's meter collections going to the Center for Animal Health and Welfare... and the next month's meter funds going towards some other organization that benefits the well being of the town. ;o)
Amend Wun
11:12 am on Monday, December 3, 2012
While I'm not really completely behind the new parking proposal, as I agree about there not being enough demand yet to warrant the increase, I'm also of the opinion that if people are going to choose suburban style retail, it's not going to be parking that causes them to make that decision. That's more of a cultural/lifestyle choice. There's no comparison between niche retail in the urban core and big box suburban retail. Regarding Rita's comment, parking revenues go to the general fund, but if you were going by what the administration stated at it's most recent meeting on the subject, the increased revenue (beyond the costs of the new meters) is to go supporting the GEDP (Main Street, Ambassadors, Farmers Market), and to pay increases in water fees so that it won't to passed down to the consumer.
Ronnie DelBacco
12:37 pm on Monday, December 3, 2012
Amend,
Secret Garden Gift Shop at Stones Crossing is a great example of a niche store that draws people like me in, and has nothing to do with parking. However, just thinking now about the parking situation can cause one to seek out suburban shops of that nature as opposed to down town niche shops.
Pamela Porter
11:40 am on Monday, December 3, 2012
Amend:
I agree. I choose to shop in local places that offer dependably excellent customer service, personal attention and unique items (and no, I'm not a snob...we've been down *that* road before). I *prefer* that, and as such, paying for parking goes with the territory.
My main objective to the "old" meters was the quarters-only shenanigans.
joan
11:50 am on Monday, December 3, 2012
Too much too soon.. Nobody wants to pay that much an hour in Easton. Not yet anyway. Perhaps if it looked like downtown Bethlehem PA.