I was thinking I would call this the "reprise" to the ongoing parking story, but opted instead for "Part III" because the story has likely not come to a conclusion.
A look down our main street, earlier today
Anyway, it has now been three weeks since "for-pay" parking was installed in the parking lot of one of our downtown shopping centers, and the attendant "hornets nest" of local outrage has not died down. If anything, it has ramped up a couple of notches.
Civic protest is running high, with some even having stooped to overpainting black over the inappropriately fine printed signs giving directions, and others making a habit of throwing plastic beach buckets over the top of the parking lot cameras to make them unable to read the license plates of cars entering the lot.
Above all, it is pretty clear the our local population — many of whom are of retirement age, and perhaps don't even own a smartphone — isn't about to "just forget the whole thing and move on with their lvies.
This parking area used to be full to overflowing!
Most recently, a new round of infuriated local debates started up again because (allegedly) anyone with a valid disabled sticker, or handicap plates would be exempt from paying the fees... except several people with genuinely applied plates and placards had been receiving $102 parking violation notices in the mail.
Meanwhile, the absentee landlord — a Private Equity management company from California — has been completely unresponsive to complaints, citing that they merely own the property, but the parking situation is handled by the 3rd party company they hired, so "please take your issues THERE."
A fine example of the old "pass the buck" approach.
The city council, in the meantime, is trying its best to stay out of the picture, citing that the parking lot belongs to the shopping center, and thus is not public property. This, even though the city regulates such things as signage, including parking lot signage.
Another section of mostly empty parking lot
A group of concerned citizens are now taking their case to the state Attorney General, citing that while it is a private parking lot and the owner can fine and charge people if they so wish, aforesaid owner is not in compliance with state statutes with respect to clarity and size of signage in pay parking lots (which, of course, are all over the city of Seattle, and MUCH clearer than these) and the signs are in violation... and hence the whole pay and fine system invalid.
We'll see how far that gets.
Meanwhile, it's interesting to see just how cohesive this small city still is, even with a substantial inflow of new residents, over the past 10 years.
As the photos shared in this post show, these days the parking lot is mostly 80-90% empty, and people are simply choosing to not use the lot, en masse.
That may, of course, be the most effective form of protest, given that it witholds an expected revenue stream for the shopping center owner, who was probably expecting much more than a 20% load factor.
The area mostly reserved for restaurants has about 75 spaces, but mostly only 10-12 are in use, these days.
Of course, the only really issue with that is that the businesses are likely seeing a substantial decline in business, as well.
Word is that several are already casting about for new locations, away from the parking circus.
Which, in turn, perhaps serves to further the potential greater goal of simply tearing down this old venue and replacing it with million dollar luxury waterfront condos... that likely will stand empty for many years.
Thanks for visiting, and feel free to leave a comment — engagement is always welcome!
20240820
H0091/0328
All images are our own, unless otherwise attributed.
This is an AI-free post!