Posted on 01/14/2011 8:16:26 PM PST by Clint Williams
The city of Seattle on Friday announced new on-street parking rates, ranging from a high of $4 per hour to a minimum of $1 per hour. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
I live and work on the eastside, in Bellevue. There is almost nothing that will get me to go into downtown Seattle. Parking is a nightmare. Traffic is insane, mean and just not worth the cost in adrenaline. In the last ten years, maybe I’ve made three trips into the city. None of those were in the last four years.
The sad irony is that, although none are "confined" there, most are willing to suffer the foolishness of one leftist idiot mayor after another.
Sounds like the Boeing era:
“Will the last person to leave Seattle please turn out the lights.”
Downtown Seattle is a miserable hellhole. I’d rather risk getting shot at Southcenter Mall in Tukwila for free than getting shot in Downtown for $4/hour.
Similar story when Celeste was governor of Ohio and companies were leaving the North in droves, moving South. So, Celeste passed an “exit tax” equal to six month’s payroll. He figured that would stem the tide.
Several months later Celeste was scratching his head trying to figure out why no new companies were being formed in Ohio. To his credit, he repealed the tax. Perhaps Seattle has enough brains to throw this piece of crap out the window.
I already avoid downtown, where here is “only” $1/hour. But if you forget to pay or overstay your time, the fine is $20.
The place is crazy! Parking rates sky high, either they don’t clear the roads when it snows or the buses are driving around with chains on when there is no snow. We avoid Seattle .
Don’t park in lots of parts of Los Angeles.
Understand - thanks.
Here in Memphis, the only place that charges to park is downtown. Average costs is $10.00 but they raise it to $20.00 when “special” events are going on. These are not hourly rates however, but are more than I want to pay to eat or shop.
There was an upscale mall opened up less than 10 years ago called Peabody Place near the Peabody Hotel. I went there 3 times. Had a great movie theatre and they comped your parking, but for 2 hours only. Now who wants to drive across town to the mall for a movie and not look around. Cost me at least $5.00 minimum to park everytime I went.
I predicted back then the mall was doomed to die, as there were other malls to go to with FREE parking. Most people disagreed. Last year I took my wife out to special place to eat downtown and we stopped by this mall. It was down to 5 stores. This was originally 2 story mall, now reduced to 5 stores. Heard it closed a few months later for good.
Similar story when Celeste was governor of Ohio and companies were leaving the North in droves, moving South. So, Celeste passed an “exit tax” equal to six month’s payroll. He figured that would stem the tide.
Just curious. How exactly do you tax a company leaving your state?
I bet red state Washington is sick of being terrorized by blue state Washington. I live in Oregon and I can tell you the country folk are sick of the tyrants in the big cities of Portland and Eugene. There really needs to be a way we can divorce ourselves from our big city oppressors.
I miss Bellevue, it’s a beautiful city! I lived in Issaquah in the 70’s, before Issaquah grew up Bellevue was the place to go and hang out. I rarely went into Seattle, it was a hellhole back in the 70’s and 80’s, and seems to get worse with each passing year I come up to visit my Dad.
“There really needs to be a way we can divorce ourselves from our big city oppressors.”
I’ve wondered that more than a few times myself. In fact if we ever do have a CWII I expect that will be a major component of the conflict.
The cities rely on the country for their food and water for the most part and they insist on placing those “dirty” power plants in the country where they won’t be an “eyesore” to the city residents. And of course they also rely on the country for their landfills for all of the garbage they generate.
I guess I’m the first free-market conservative to ask what the utilization rates were before the change, and what they will be after.
The purpose of charging for parking is to ensure that it is available to those who value it most. When rates are too cheap, you can’t find a parking spot. If there are lots of open spaces, then rates are probably too high.
The only difference between Seattle & Southcenter is that in Seattle, the COPS are the ones who are wantonly murdering people. In Southcenter, of course, underage wannabees might do the shooting.
I buy everything mail order. Parking is free in my garage and if anyone gets shot, it’ll be me doing the shooting, thanks.
I'm not sure, exactly, but it's probably the same way that a credit card company makes you pay the balance off when you tell them you want to cancel the card.
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