A long time ago in a galaxy far away, er, okay it was really Norwalk and 2002. A monarch gazed over his kingdom and decreed– let there be tolls upon the horseless carriages, so that ye olde taxed payers are freed from subsidizing parking. There was a cry throughout the land and some cried “free at last, free at last,” but that might have just been a recording heard on Martin Luther King day. What happened was that then Mayor Alex knopp decreed that all parking in Norwalk needed to be paid by the horseless carriage driver, and not the tax payer. Very quickly a series of unintended consquences occured.
The peasants revolted. The merchants gathered pitchforks. And “Dr. Frankensteen” did a tap dance. Ah yes, Mel Brooks is helping with this post. Anyway, to deal with the complexity of handling so many types of parking needs, the very first plan to charge for parking resulted in the manned payment booths installed in December of 2004. On top of the increased parking fees, this just riled up the South Norwalk merchants and visitors culminating in a series of clashes between the Knopp administration and pretty much everyone else.
Some of the challenges were due to the byzantine relationships various buildings had with the asphalt. For instance some part of North Main street was in fact a business condo association that had property rights that extended out into Webster lot. Other buildings had no property beyond their walls, others had contracts for easements with the City, others didn’t and then there was the movie theater, operated by Crown Theaters at the time. Add the daytime retailer needs versus the night time restaurant needs and whatever the payment method implemented, problems quickly arose.
The parking fees became a major campaign issue in the summer of 2005, and once Mayor Moccia was elected into office, parking policy started to go through a more formal process. Economic impact studies were started, contracts were analyzed and bit by bit changes were introduced to the parking system including the removal of meters on wall street and the lowering of rates within SoNo.
Soon after this series of policy changes, a operational study was authorized to determine the best management practices for not only Webster Lot, but within the SoNo parking system. Coin only street meters became credit card accepting meters. Pay station equipment was upgraded. But Webster operated pretty much as originally implemented because none of the contractual relationships that governed the lot could be easily sorted out. The business condo owners on North Main St. sued to City which tied up how the lot’s entrances and exits could work. And until Crown sold off its theatrical holdings, the theater still had rights to free spaces within the lot. It took a long time.
Finally, after these many years of wrangling, the pay booths at Webster are being phased out. Instead pay meters will be installed throughout the lot and parkers will be able to pull into a space, walk up to a pay meter and punch in their parking spot number and choose from cash, credit, or validation and purchase time in whatever increments they want.
The big news out of this is the elimination of mechanical gates constricting entry and exit to the lot. The downside will be that now Webster Lot parkers will be subject to the same time expiration tickets that they didn’t have to worry about before because they would pay upon exit. But overall, not such a bad downside.
The Parking Authority will be voting on adopting this change on their Monday night meeting. According to Kathryn Hebert’s memo to the parking Authority:
As part of the implementation program, we will be doing extensive marketing and PR as well as having staff available to re educate the public and surrounding businesses how to use the new equipment. In lieu of the cashier/security labor pool used with the exiting cashiering method, we are expecting to hire on street customer service ambassadors to assist the public not only with equipment use, but with other issues that may come up in that environment (where is a specific restaurant, how do I get to I95, for instance).
I recommend that we start the process immediately. We estimate the project will take 3-4 months including delivery and installation of the pay stations, removal of the booth and miscellaneous parking lot repairs.
The public should see changes to the Webster Lot in early 2010. Government moves slowly, but sometimes that’s a good thing.
This is great news. If you park and in Stamford you’ll find how easy it is not having to deal with those miserables that inhabit those parking toll cells/cages. I have paid on the way in and on the way out and called LAZ to report the complaint and they do nothing! In fact, the same people are still working there. Perhaps we can donate the booths to the Norwalk Museum? As a forgotten times’ type thing? At least there would be something there!
Speaking of the past has anyone purchased the new Norwalk pictorial History book yet? Reccomended! I only wish they could have incorporated photos that stretch into the 70′s.
For you, yippee and all of the rest of you who believe that the removal of those booths will be the panacea you have dreamed of, you are in for a rude awakening when it finally happens. Just imagine your consternation when the traffic control person who has just finished writing out a ticket because you are 5 minutes over the alloted time you purchased, says that there is nothing you can do to not get that ticket. Then who will you cry to? City Hall? Will you claim it is unfair that you went for takeout food, didn’t put in any money in the pay station, and got a ticket? Or it took longer then you thought? Or isn’t there a grace period?
Let’s not forget that leaving the lot after the movie was hard enough when one line had to be formed to go through the checkout. How about those three or four cars trying to squeeze into that lane by not giving an inch to any other driver? Remember years ago, trying to get out of that lot? Cars from everywhere trying to squeeze into two lanes or trying to make three of four. And, the light won’t be any faster or make your life easier. But, you will have gotten rid of the little pay station, and the people who worked there will be out of a job and your lives. And from now on, there will be no one to complain to, because you will be responsible for yourselves.
Someone much wiser then me once said” be careful what you wish for, as you might get it”. As long as people from Norwalk have this sense of entitlement about parking, there will be no parking authority, city agency or service or management company which will ever satisfy you. So, good luck with your new lot configuration and I hope that you are happy with it, because while the budgets for this city are stretched, you have now forced the parking authority and city to spend redundant capital dollars. Are you happy? Speaking as an original parking authority member, I am sad to see that in the time since I served, nothing has changed.
Never had any trouble with the guys in the booth. Simple enough to pay. And there’s that grace period if you’re just running into the bank. People…free parking is not a birthright. Get over it.
I had to laugh at the comment in today’s Hour article when John Federici was quoted as saying “now we have the technology”.
Norwalk has ALWAYS had the technology.
It was called PARKING METERS.
I have appealed a parking ticket to the Parking Authority, that I believed was in error, and it was removed.
There is always a way.
I take it Stephen works for the parking people? Ever get a ticket from that guy down there now? There is no beating that so one could argue that this is a better solution for the City. If you know you are going to a 2 hr movie you can simply do the math. The traffic will flow a lot easier and we no longer need to compensate 2 different booths and a 3rd party company that makes a profit from the taxpayers! Complain to the people in the booth? About what? They didn’t even speak english.
The parking uthority should be reformed with the goal of maximizing property value, not parking revenue. Or maybe of serving the public.