Port Townsend plans to start charging $2 per hour for parking downtown. Violations will cost $65, up from $15.
There’s no provision for people who must park downtown such as business owners, workers or people who live there, and it’ll cost them $300 to $400 per month.
Many in PT are on fixed incomes and cannot afford this added cost. This ill-informed action by the city council and city staff will hurt our business community, renters and all of us who go downtown.
Small business is our town’s heartbeat. They already pay outrageously high commercial rents. Many barely hang on during winter. Charging for parking will discourage people, including tourists, from coming downtown.
Port Townsend faces the loss of tourist dollars due to the Fort Worden PDA fiasco. Now the city council is piling on more costs to an already beleaguered business community.
The plan uses QR codes on cellphones to pay for parking. How many can do this? How many elderly people in this community or poor people who may not have cell phones can access this system?
There’s no plan to use money from parking fees to fix our many potholes. It’ll cost $20,000 to implement the program. Perhaps the city will use this extra money to pay for City Manager John Mauro’s salary increase.
Yes, he’s the guy who makes more than our governor. This is outrageous.
Call or write the council or attend their meetings. This is a council that backs down when we oppose their stupid ideas.
Bobbie Hasselbring
Port Townsend