Lexington Parking Behemoth
The Herald-Leader today provides a report on new downtown parking meters that really colors in the city's incredible plan to create a giant downtown parking bureaucracy that will support debt payments for the "annual $700,000-plus bond payment issued for the Transit Center parking garage."
I was a bit surprised earlier this year when I saw television advertisements declaring that parking enforcement would be stepped up, a somewhat strange expenditure to say the government was doing what it was supposed to do. But apparently it was PR for a multi-step plan:
- Dedicate five parking enforcers to ticketing violators.
- Install 300 new parking meters.
- Quadruple parking fees to a rate that is double what Louisville charges.
Charging an adequate fee for public parking to pay for transit-related debt is fine, but what percentage of this hike is going to support this new bureaucracy, equipment and fancy parking meters?
Is the city charging higher fees only for the sake of creating more government dedicated to charging higher fees?
