A few weeks ago, we criticized the White Administration and conservative councilman Michael Berry (here, here, and here) for floating a proposal to increase the number of parking meters downtown, and to begin charging at all downtown parking meters for after hours and weekend parking that is currently free.
We contended that none of the politicians were being forthcoming about how they proposed to spend the revenues they proposed to collect, and that councilman Berry's defense at the time was not convincing:
“We want to hear from the restaurants. And obviously they have some reasons to be concerned. What I would tell you is, the changes that we're considering — we have not yet voted on — are designed to improve traffic flow and improve the commercial environment downtown,” said City Council member Michael Berry.
We didn't buy it, and instead warned you, Houston taxpayers, that whenever a politician says it's not about the money, it's almost always about the money.
We applaud councilman Berry, who seems to have gotten the message and is backing away from the more comprehensive proposal to something that appears more limited. Here is what he told News24 yesterday:
“There is a lot of money to be collected by increasing parking meter rates or by adding a number of parking meters,” City Councilman Michael Berry says. “But I think you’re doing it in sort of a backdoor way and the public really resents it. Not only was it not popular, it probably wasn’t a really good idea.”
That's a complete turnaround from his earlier position, and one that we applaud. We further applaud councilmember Carol Alvarado:
“We are just coming out of that recovery stage of all the construction and the setbacks we’ve had,” City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado says. “We don’t need to add anything that can hinder anyone’s decision to come downtown and have fun.”
That's correct.
The focus of the new proposals is to expand the coverage to include Saturdays, according to News24. That's still an expansion that is not justified until the Mayor and councilmembers explain exactly what will be done with the additional revenue. The proposals will be considered on Wednesday. Feel free to contact your elected officials if you have an opinion on the topic.
Posted by Kevin Whited on July 10, 2004, 06:45 PM | News and Views - Houston | Printer-Friendly