CLEVELAND — Cleveland Councilman Kevin Bishop (Ward 2) is asking the city to pause its new parking program to gather feedback from residents, businesses, and others affected by increased costs.
"This can increase the cost of living for a lot of different people," he said.
"I've asked the city to pause the rollout of this parking until we get a better snapshot and try to engage more people who this parking will affect," Bishop said during an interview on Thursday afternoon.
Bishop said the city council passed legislation last year allowing the city to eliminate free weekend parking and charge more, which resulted in the city increasing parking rates to $1.50 per hour.
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However, Bishop, who chairs the city's Municipal Properties and Services Committee, said it was meant to target parking issues in Downtown Cleveland, not increase costs in neighborhoods.
"It wasn't our intent, and we didn't envision that we would be adding so many different, so many additional parking spaces for paid parking," he said.
'It will hurt a lot'
For example, meters will be added along the north side of Detroit Avenue between West 28th and West 29th streets, where Tara Cohen works as a barber at Premier Barber Studio.
"It will hurt a lot," she said.
She said paying for parking for work could cost her up to $400 a month.
She's concerned the added expense will cost her clients too.
"I'm pretty worried, honestly," she said. "I have built my entire business in this neighborhood and I don't want to see this go."
Cohen said it's already tough to find a parking spot near the studio.
"It's kind of a like a get in where you fit in situation," she said.
Now, the Cleveland Heights resident said it will be tough on her wallet, too.
"Even though I don't live directly in Cleveland, I work here so I pay taxes, and I want to be a part of the community down here," she said. "I really do like it down here, and it would be a detriment, I think, to the community [to pay to park.] I think it would make small business owners reconsider their location," she said.
Cleveland's response
The City of Cleveland declined our request for an on-camera interview on Thursday and has yet to provide a comment on Bishop's call for a moratorium on the parking program.
However, city spokesperson Tyler Sinclair sent us the following statement about the concerns:
"There are 40 unrestricted parking spots that are free all hours of the day located directly across the street, which is literally steps away from her workplace. That has not changed.
Business owners have been supportive of the changes we’ve made, and have said they much prefer customers parking in front of their businesses and would be okay with employees having to walk a block or two – which would be the case here with more than 300 unrestricted spots that are free all hours of the day located within a 3-minute walk of that particular business.
A handful of blocks Downtown and in Hingetown are the only areas where new, paid parking is being added.
We already have a robust system in place for handicapped parking. That also remains unchanged. Any resident who is seeking one of those permits should call 311. This is the first time in the City’s history where we have actual parking data that we can now use to make changes as necessary. This was previously nonexistent with the coin meters as we couldn’t determine how long people were parking or how frequently those spaces were being occupied based on just quarters alone. Now that we’re beginning to collect data, we’re able to monitor and match that with on-the-ground feedback from residents, visitors, etc. to make responsive changes going forward. It’s a dynamic system that we’re committed to following through on as changes become necessary."
