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.
From the Hour:
Prior to creation of the Parking Authority in 2001, taxpayers subsidized parking operations on average $450,000 each year. Adding debt payments for The Maritime Garage, which was built in 2003, would have pushed the annual subsidy to more than $1 million. Now “black ink flows on the pages of the Parking Authority’s budget and taxpayers are no longer supplementing the costs of maintaining and operating the municipal parking system,” according to a recent press release prepared by the authority and Harvey.
“City officials are using that revenue constructively. Our facilities are far better repaired and far better kept than they were before,” said Stephen G. Bentkover, authority chairman in the release. “We’re fixing up what 25 or 30 years of neglect had brought the parking to in Norwalk. Prior to the creation of the Parking Authority, parking structures had been neglected, ill-managed and there were outstanding parking tickets totaling more than $1 million that were not being collected.”
The hiring of Harvey comes as the Parking Authority puts forward a $4.8-million operating budget for fiscal year 2008-09. The budget includes money for, among other things, roving security patrols and more security at the Yankee Doodle Garage, Haviland Deck and South Norwalk train station garage.
This summer, a $1-million overhaul of the Haviland Street parking deck, a two-level, 280-space parking facility located a block off Washington Street in SoNo, is expected to begin.
“One of Shelly’s roles will be to help get the most effective communication we can out to merchants and residents on what accommodations we’re trying to make for permit holders and transient parkers, and how quickly we hope to get the job completed,” said Harold F. Alvord, director of public works.
Several years ago, Parking Authority meetings were often the scene of heated arguments between authority members and SoNo business owners. Merchants protested the addition of a toll booth and introduction of evening parking fees at the Webster lot in South Norwalk in November 2004, and that the city had brought in a private firm, LAZ Parking Ltd., to manage municipal parking.
Having a publicist focus on communicating parking policies, changes, programs etc is great. Its a sign that Norwalk government is modernizing and recognizing that effective communication is just as important as good governance.
source: The Hour, Parking Authority hires publicist, April 3, 2008
