With the weather warming, SoNo is springing to activity and parking is on the minds of many. Which is why today’s Hour reveals the PR push about parking. Which is long overdue. Back in 2005, when the new parking rates were unceremoniously dumped on the unsuspecting public and merchants, the chief complaint centered around the lack of communication from city hall. Famously then mayor Alex Knopp scurried away from a meeting about parking problems, rather than communicate with the merchants whose businesses were impacted.
There’s been many changes since then, the most important ones have been better communication and more responsive policies reflecting the reality on the ground. Mayor Moccia early on focused on improving customer service and financial accountability, things which led to stabilizing the operations of the parking authority. The changes have been mostly good, some incremental, like reducing the price of nighttime parking at Webster lot solved the issues with lines and traffic congestion. Some have been long in coming due to complexity, like repairing the Haviland Street deck. Some things still need work, like the aggressive level of ticketing that falres up now and then.

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