Take-Backs!: Downtown Parking May Not Actually Increase to $4 an Hour
One of the most contentious decisions of last year was Mayor Mike McGinn's proposal to increase parking in downtown areas to a whopping $4 an hour, with a 50-cent increase in certain other areas.
The original plan, which also expanded paid parking times to evenings and Sundays, was scaled back by the City Council back in November. And now, in the midst of "bikiest mayor"/"McSchwinn"/etc. outrage, it looks like it may be scaled back further, the Seattle Department of Transportation announced at a lunchtime forum sponsored by the Downtown Seattle association yesterday. SDOT says it's "scrubbing the numbers."
The original parking rate rise was based on an ideal 78 percent parking rate on a metered city block -- in other words, to plan for every block to always have a few spots free. Critics argued that the parking raise would hurt downtown business. Kemper Freeman, Jr., unofficial King of Bellevue, went so far as to announce that Mayor McGinn was "putting a knife in [downtown's] very heart."
No specifics yet as to what the adjustments will be. We'll keep you posted.
