City behind parking meters in park
July 8, 2009
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| Pay to park: Visitors to the eastern side of Golden Gate Park may have to pay to park near such attractions as the de Young Museum and the Academy of Sciences. (Cindy Chew/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Enjoy the prized free roadway parking in Golden Gate Park while it lasts, because by April The City plans to charge for parking in 1,849 spaces.
The controversial proposal to install parking meters in the 1,017-acre park has surfaced and been shot down in the past, but the current budget woes in The City have officials backing the idea.
The idea is to have people pay for parking on the eastern side of Golden Gate Park, around the main attractions that include the de Young Museum, the California Academy of Sciences, the Japanese Tea Garden and the Botanical Gardens, according to Supervisor John Avalos. Drivers would then pay for the parking at one of 133 machines that are to be installed, according to the proposal.
The transformation of the more than 1,800 spaces would turn about one-fifth of the approximately 8,300 parking spots in Golden Gate Park into paid spaces.
The new metered spaces are scheduled for as early as April, and are projected to generate the Recreation and Park Department about $500,000 for the fiscal year that ends June 30. The details about the rates for the new meters are being worked out. The cost to park in San Francisco meters ranges from $3.50 per hour in downtown to just $2 for outlying areas such as the Sunset district.
The second year of service is expected to generate $1.4 million for the park department. On top of the money collected from the parking rates, there is a projection that the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency — which enforces city parking meters and also runs Muni — would collect about $823,000 per year from citations from people failing to pay for the meters, providing the MTA with a $379,000 net profit. The citation prices for failing to pay at meters in The City currently are $63 for meters downtown and $53 for others.
The money that can be collected from the meters has been a driving force for support.
Mayor Gavin Newsom, who has previously opposed the idea, is now supporting it as part of a deal he struck last Wednesday with Avalos, chair of the Board of Supervisors budget committee.
“The mayor isn’t crazy about parking meters in Golden Gate Park,” Newsom spokesman Nathan Ballard said Tuesday. But the mayor is supporting the proposal “because we are strapped for cash.”
Avalos said the parking meter proposal is in line with The City’s transit first policy. He said the parking meters help with traffic and congestion while sending the right message.
“We are talking about a park that should at least have some symbol of environmentalism. Encouraging free parking in a park doesn’t make sense environmentally,” Avalos said.
Others say that it unfairly penalizes park users.
“Nobody likes to pay for parking, but at the same time, people like clean parks. We have to figure out ways to fund the maintenance of our parks,” Recreation and Park Department spokeswoman Lisa Seitz-Gruwell said.
Wednesday, the Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee is scheduled to vote on legislation authorizing the recreation department and the MTA to finalize the parking meter proposal for Golden Gate Park.
Paying for the park
Under a deal made a week ago, parking meters would be installed in Golden Gate Park as part of Mayor Gavin Newsom’s proposed city budget.
1,849 Number of parking metered spaces in the eastern side of Golden Gate Park
133 Number of meter collection machines for the 1,849 spaces
$206,000 Projected new revenue for Recreation and Park Department from meters in the current fiscal year
$1.41 million Projected new revenue for Recreation and Park Department from meters in the fiscal year 2010-11
April 2010 When parking meters would go into effect
Source: City Controller’s Office
jsabatini@sfexaminer.com
