Public Comment

As your constituent, I urge you to reject the idea of extending Berkeley parking-meter hours beyond 6 pm. On balance, I believe you will find this proposal extremely unpopular, divisive, and counterproductive. 

The unpopularity and divisiveness were clearly apparent in 2009, when Oakland briefly tried extending meter hours to 8 pm. Widespread public outrage soon obliged Oakland elected officials to stage an embarrassing and costly retreat, rolling back meter hours to 6 pm. 

The 5/21 Transportation Commission packet includes a staff report citing West Hollywood's "successful" extension of meter hours. But West Hollywood's acceptance of expanded meter hours has a different context -- namely, the South Coast Air Quality Management District's longstanding efforts to nearly eliminate free parking in urban Los Angeles and Orange Counties, to reduce the L.A. basin's specific smog problems. 

Angelenos have gotten used to this. I believe that Oakland's public rebellion against expanded meter hours is more relevant to Berkeley -- and would likely be repeated, with at least the same fervor, in Berkeley. 

The counterproductiveness of expanding meter hours seems clear in the context of Council's referral: Councilmember Arreguin's Council motion referred only to "the Downtown and Telegraph Avenue," yet somehow the Transportation Commission is eyeing 8 pm meter hours in the Elmwood and Fourth Street. 

More importantly, Councilmember Arreguin specifically proposed "that revenue...be earmarked to fund...new homeless services." Many Berkeley residents would like to see more-effective homeless services. But extending meter hours beyond 6 pm seems almost certain to keep patrons away from businesses at the crucial dinner hour, and beyond. 

That invites yet another replay of our core commercial districts' familiar death spiral: Reduced evening patronage of businesses reduces "active uses" and curtails businesses' hours. That, in turn, abandons more of commercial districts to become nighttime campgrounds and hangouts. The prospect of wading through a homeless encampment repels more patrons. And the vicious cycle spins downward. 

In public perception, even if not in fact, Berkeley would soon end up with a "worse homeless problem." 

There is a more productive, and equitable, way to fund better homeless services -- especially in the downtown: Council is on the verge of approving several very large downtown development projects, which would themselves have negative impacts on existing downtown businesses. 

Rather than further punishing downtown businesses by imposing evening parking fees, it seems far more equitable -- and more productive -- to fund new homeless services by maximizing the community benefit fees that the City receives from the developers of these large properties. 

For all of these reasons, I urge you to reject the idea of expanding parking-meter hours beyond 6 pm. The best way to steer clear of public outrage over this unpopular and counterproductive idea is to avoid triggering that outrage in the first place. Act as wisely as you did in 2013, when you were presented with the same unpopular idea under the "GoBerkeley" rubric: Reject extended parking hours now, at the proposal stage, before they become political Kryptonite.