The poll's running about 70% against, and that's to be expected in the absence of any sort of voter education. But seeing as virtually everyone reading claims to believe in "free market" principles, the current downtown parking system is complete and utter Englandist nonsense. We imagine parking to be scarce, and so we attach no cost to its use; therefore, it is constantly abused. If parking is valuable and scarce, why am I permitted to park a car on the street in front of CeeSaw's store and leave it there all week long? Does that make any sense at all?
Parking meters restore the principle of a market: You pay for the time you use, and plan the use of your time accordingly. Employees (and too damned many owners) no longer take up parking spaces that are better left for the use of shoppers.
Of course, we'll never even so much as consider the possibility. That's because, as John Rosenbarger reminded us on Saturday, there is no way to avoid New Albany drying up and blowing away, primarily because people in his position will do nothing to prevent it. We wouldn't want to threaten election results, would we?
Go and vote. Or not. Whatever.
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During the recent presentation by Author and Urban Planner Jeff Speck he mentioned the benefits of metered parking to the business climate in the core of urban downtowns. How do you feel about having parking meters in our downtown?
Click here to place your vote on the topic of metered parking downtown: Parking Meters in Downtown New Albany.
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