Mark your calendars, folks. Starting in July, you can expect parking rates in downtown San Luis Obispo to double!
Apparently, we really need a new $53 million parking garage. Does that number sound familiar? It also happens to be about how much it would cost to build a brand new police station. If you had to choose, which would you rather have?
Wait! Don’t answer that. It’s a false choice.
In reality, we either pay for the city to build a new parking garage or the SLO Repertory Theatre doesn’t get to build its new theater. SLO Rep can’t start erecting its new theater (which it’s raised $11 million for, so far, and will cost $15.3 million) until SLO finishes garage construction. Those two projects are slated for the same city-owned surface lot on Nipomo and Palm—soon to be part of the city’s brand new Cultural Arts District. Fancy!
How did we get here? If you ask the city, it all started two decades ago, when SLO first decided that demand for parking downtown would only increase and building another parking structure would be good for longterm viability.
“But the actual need for parking wasn’t there at the time,” SLO Parking Manager Gaven Hussey said.
I’m pretty sure there still isn’t an actual need for parking. And a consultant hired by the city agrees with me! During most days and times, downtown parking demand isn’t higher than the 85 percent threshold that determines whether parking resources are tight. Demand for parking downtown only climbs above 85 percent on Thursday nights during the downtown farmers’ market. So we’re building a parking structure because of the once-a-week farmers’ market?!
No, no, no, silly. It’s for the long-term “vitality” of our downtown, according to Mayor Erica Stewart.
“If we don’t build this parking structure, we continue down the road where our downtown businesses are harmed in the long run, our vitality is harmed in the long run,” she told New Times.
Let me get this straight: The city doesn’t believe that $4 an hour street parking will harm businesses downtown? That’s $1 for 15 minutes, folks—$1 to run into Scout Coffee, grab a $4 or $5 deliciously caffeinated specialty beverage, and pray that there isn’t a line so you don’t get a $45 parking ticket because you didn’t have another $1 worth of change in your cupholder.
But, you guys, parking garage rates will only be $3 an hour. Who’s going to park in the parking garage to run into a coffee shop?
And $1 for 1/4 hour of convenience is not where these parking rate hikes end. The city plans to make it an even $5 an hour in 2025. A nice, round, ridiculous number, amirite? Where else do people pay that much for parking?
Well, downtown Paso Robles is about to double its rates from $1 to $2 an hour (but the first two hours are free!). In Pismo Beach, people pay between $2 and $5 an hour, depending on how busy it is—supply and demand, baby! Santa Barbara charges $2.50 an hour after the first 75 minutes, which are free. So, SLO will be the most expensive city to park on the Central Coast! Take that, losers!
I’m not so sure downtown business owners agree that this new parking garage and the hourly rates that will help pay down the $47 million loan the city’s taking out to pay for it is good for long-term “vitality.” Some are concerned, and rightfully so, that it will do the opposite to downtown.
The upcoming rate increases, according to Downtown SLO Association CEO Bettina Swigger, “have the potential to cause public outcry.”
I’m already crying in public!
Hey, everyone who’s crying, you can’t blame the city for the outrageous price tag. You know, whose fault is, don’t you? COVID-19, obviously!
City Manager Derek Johnson said the city got wham-wham-whammed during and after the pandemic. A “triple whammy” of construction cost increases, interest rate hikes, and lost parking revenue—the city lost $4 million in parking revenue during the pandemic (That’s a lot of coins!)—doubled the new garage’s estimated price tag, which had been about $25 million.
It’s so strange, you know, SLO Rep’s cost to build a new theater also doubled, but the nonprofit aimed to be fiscally prudent by reducing the size of its original project. Could the city do the same?
Nope, nope, nope! Going back to the drawing board costs too much money. It sounds like the city is moving forward with its expensive plan no matter what, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. All the City Council members are on board, Hussey and Johnson are gung-ho, and SLO Rep is ready to move forward with its plans already.
The good news is that no one will be able to afford to park downtown, so everyone’s going to walk and bike downtown—even SLO County residents who live outside of town. They can take public transit from Paso, aka the bus. It only takes 1.5 hours with 33 stops. Or bus it in from Pismo—which clocks in at an hour and you have to change buses.
Makes downtown SLO sound appealing, right? Pedestrian friendly and empty. Totally worth spending almost three hours on a bus to walk around in the “heart” of our county. Δ
The Shredder is crying in public. Send tissues to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Mar 2-12, 2023.
I am puzzled why city government has to build parking structures. In many parts of the county private firms do this. If it;’s needed sell the dirt to a private company and let them build and determine rates.
I don’t often agree with the Shred-dog often….well, heck. I never have before! But he/she/they/them/it/what/that bashed that nail on the noggin. SLO had no need for parking garages, until the same city council that voted for them, voted to expand out of control housing tracts.
Sure, you can up the nose to park here, but you’ll have a tough time getting here, because despite the massive expansion of homes, there has been NOTHING done in the way of infrastructure to handle the massive increase in traffic. Unless you count eliminating a lane from both Higuera and Marsh…