Hang the meter maid

For those of you who are unaware I own a business downtown with my pal Max, we chose downtown because we were both very excited about the present growth of Jax's core. We are both beginning to regret that decision based on one fact... downtown has a PARKING problem. According to an article I uncovered in the Daily record, Suzanne Jenkins feels there is a problem as well. The problem isn't that there's not enough parking, the problem is that the parking system is not designed for downtown business owners and their patrons. For example, the parking right outside of the store at 114 East Adams St. is for one hour only. There have been a few instances where parkers have gotten tickets before their metered hour is up because the meter attendant assumed they would be there for longer than an hour. The same attendant told us that we are not only not allowed to park in the same spot for over an hour, or even on the same street , but also that once our metered time is up that we cannot park in downtown at all. That is just friggin' bonkers. The city of Jax wants businesses to come downtown and people to come to those businesses, but give them anti-incentive with this parking issue. Why would a patron come back downtown to buy things if they get a parking "tax" almost every time they come down here.

The city seems to be pushing people to parking in garages. Why? I guess I would think this is a fair deal except for the fact that Max had his car broken into while parked away from the store. For businesses open late, parking garages pose the problem of letting your car be a prime target for theives. I always feel safer when I can see the vehicle and keep tabs on it for myself. You could argue that we should park in a garage and then move our cars to the front of the store after six. This poses the problem of having to close down shop for 10-15 minutes while we move, and we could be missing potential sales during that time. The bigger problem, of course, is parking tickets and the nuisance of the parking meter assholes/attendants for our customers.

Downtown Jacksonville has endless potential, and developers are coming at it in traditional ways. I see new buildings being pooped out everyday downtown, so why can't we think more progressively? Look at Dubai... now, I'm not proposing that we could do what Dubai has done, that's outrageous, but they are definitely taking a different approach to the long-established-city-building-formula and finding new and revolutionary ways of incorporating modernistic beauty and functionality. I see no reason why developers in Jax can't think this way... PLEASE take some cues from our friends in the United Arab Emerates!

Shit man, I just wanna run my business and not worry about my customers being harrassed for parking downtown.