A silver minivan drove from the West valley, heading downtown on Saturday. It parked on Taylor Street, in front of the dorms, and a young girl got out to meet her friend of five years and go catch up at Z-Pizza.
The friends came back, two hours later, and found a $60 ticket on the car. A ticket for violating parking meter laws.
Sophomore Kayla Martinez, a secondary education major, drove downtown to visit her friend in the dorms. It was the perfect time because, according to her friend, she wouldn’t have to pay for parking.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Martinez, the driver of the minivan. “I don’t think it’s busy enough to charge me for parking on a Saturday night. There’s not a lot of people who come downtown on the weekends, so it’s not like people are waiting for spots.”
Metered parking in downtown Phoenix is currently in effect Mondays through Fridays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m as well as 8 a.m. to 5 p.m on Saturdays. But that might soon change.
After a city subcommittee voted last week to reduce the hours for metered parking, people parking downtown may gain 24 more hours of free parking per week. This would mean that people would pay for parking Mondays through Fridays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays would be free.
“I would visit my friend more often if this happened,” Martinez said. “The weekend is the only time I have to visit friends, and if Saturdays were free, I’d come back downtown.”
This is precisely why the Downtown Aviation and Economy Subcommittee voted for the hour changes—to bring people downtown.
The vote is only a recommendation and the issue will have to be voted on later this year by the entire city council, but in the meantime, the city will survey downtown business owners and residents on the possible changes and use their responses to help the city councilors determine their votes, said Sina Matthes, public information officer for the city of Phoenix Auditor.
The subcommittee supports the changes because it believes paying for parking is deterring people from coming downtown, said David Roderique, president of the Downtown Phoenix Partnership.
“They’re concerned it’s a disincentive for people coming downtown,” he said. “People may choose to go elsewhere, somewhere they don’t have to pay for parking.”
If the city council passes the proposed metered parking hours, downtown will see more people, and businesses will have more customers, Roderique said.
“I would love to see no charge for parking downtown,” he said. “But that’s not realistic in this day and age. It’s more important to have free hours after five or credit card readers (on parking meters).”
Credit card readers were another option the subcommittee had but ultimately decided against.
“We want to get the credit card readers installed, it would be a much greater convenience for people,” Roderique said.
Contact the reporter at dmillar@asu.edu
