An open letter from Bob Martynec, the neighborhood stakeholder representing the Hillcrest Town Council on the Update of the Uptown Community Plan
Partnership slimes its way to a new low
The Uptown Partnership receives half of the money put into local parking meters. Yep, half of all those quarters you’ve been slipping into city meters add up to close to a million dollars. (And you thought that was just chump change!) For years, the Uptown Partnership has been saving up all of this money promising to use it to get Hillcrest a parking structure.
Until recently that is. Now they got it into their heads that the way to increase parking spaces is to change parking rates. I suppose that if they raise the rates enough, people will start shopping and eating somewhere other than Hillcrest, thus creating empty parking spaces. So the Uptown Partnership has decided that they want to spend 13 years of community parking money on new meters which can easily be adjusted. (Up or down, but we all suspect how that will turn out.)
That’s the plan. Don’t spend the money on new parking spaces. Spend it on more meters.
There have been several surveys of public opinion about parking, and people tend to think raising rates is a bad idea. And they think that buying new meters is a really bad idea. But the management at the Uptown Partnership knows better. If they could just come up with a way to make it appear as though the public is behind the idea….Enter the City of San Diego which is in the process of developing a new community plan. Part of the efforts is devoted to collecting public opinion on density, building heights, open spaces, bicycles and parking. Oh… and about parking. So here are a bunch of citizens trying to give the City their honest opinions about a variety of things and in marches a mob of Partnership people. And lo and behold, they have some opinions about parking. The consensus opinion that surfaces surprises even the City employees. It is that raising parking rates is a good idea.
Hmmm. Now, one could argue that the Uptown Partnership people were there to give their opinions just the same as everyone else, except that they all exited en masse as soon as the questions about parking were over. So there you have it. Rather than listening to public opinion and adjusting their policies, the Partnership showed up, told us what to think and slinked off into the darkness.
HQ note: The “Partnership” has problem with their expenses and the Grand Jury, but continues to get support from Mayor Sanders and councilmembers Kevin Faulconer and Todd Gloria. Next Tuesday the City Council will decide if the Uptown Partnership’s contract should be extended for another year…what do you think?
