Following up on the Mayor’s May 11 statement that he has seen no plans for meters on Hope Street, SNA contacted the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services to determine whether such plans might be made in the future. The answer: not for a long time and not very likely in any case.
According to Revenue Agent John Murphy, who oversees new meter installations, the process of converting downtown to the new meters and filling in currently unmetered Downcity spaces must be completed before any areas outside of Downcity will be studied. No other areas, including Hope Street, have yet been looked at, much less designated, for meters at this time.
When that time comes, existing commercial districts along major arterial roads will be studied for possible installations based on two criteria: revenue potential for the city and the benefit to area merchants by encouraging turnover.
By those standards, it would appear that our end of Hope Street would not be a good site for new parking meters. SNA thanks John Murphy and also Rita Murphy of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services for authoritatively countering the incorrect information provided by other city officials that originally created anxiety about this matter.
1 Comment
Aaron Masri · July 6, 2005 at 1:28 am
While I understand the convenience and advantages of free parking on Hope Street, we need to keep in mind that there is a cost to this convenience in higher property taxes and consumer prices. Parking meters on Hope Street could be a good thing IF they were part of an overall city parking strategy or part of a revenue strategy to lower property taxes or hold them flat while still maintaining/improving services. Improving public transport to Hope Street from other areas must be addressed as well. These measures would help increase foot traffic on Hope Street which would add to the safety and vitality of the area. Wouldn’t it be true that Providence residents would trade feeding a meter for lower property taxes? At least with a parking meter you can choose to not park there. Property tax hikes are beyond our control.
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