City Council passed a residential parking permit plan for Columbia-Tusculum today. So at least three neighborhoods (possibly more?) now have residential parking permits in place but we can't pass one for OTR. So residents of some urban neighborhoods should enjoy convenient on-street parking, but the parking spaces on OTR's streets should be primarily for visitors to the neighborhood.

 

Another residential parking permit program is being proposed for the West End as part of the FCC stadium deal. So we will have at least four urban neighborhoods in this city where residents get to enjoy on-street parking permits. Meanwhile the OTR residential parking plan was passed by City Council twice and vetoed by the Mayor both times.

 

How much do residential permits cost?

 

Related, if the city is looking for a funding stream they should tax all surface lot revenue at 25%. That'll push more people to use street parking or switch to other modes, and it'll push lot owners to consider redeveloping their space into something more useful.

 

It hasn't been implemented yet. I'm not sure how much parking permits in other neighborhoods go for.

It's just mind blowing to me that no one is calling out Cranley's hypocrisy on this issue. Cranley railed against Mallory's parking deal, saying that "hours of enforcement will be extended until 9 p.m., which will hurt restaurants and Reds games," and then after he got into office, he extended CBD/OTR enforcement hours to 9 pm. He complained that "parking rates are going to increase by at least 3 percent per year" and yet, since he got into office, he has now increased parking rates way more than 3 percent in popular neighborhoods. In CUF, Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout, and Northside, rates were 50¢/hour in 2014 and will now be raised to $1.25/hour, which is a 150% increase over 4 years. I can't find an article that mentions what Downtown and OTR parking rates were in 2014, but they will now rise to as much as $2.75 in parts of the CBD and $2.25 in parts of OTR. All of these increases are an order of magnitude above what Xerox would have been allowed.

 

WLW would have thrown a rod through the engine block if Mallory did that.

How much would parking rates in Cincinnati increase under budget plan?

 

Money from parking meters will make up an increasing share of the city’s general fund revenue under the budget plan by Acting City Manager Patrick Duhaney and Mayor John Cranley, with Duhaney outlining the new parking rates in a memo to council.

 

The percentage of the city’s general fund revenue from parking meters would jump from 0.5 percent this year to 1.2 percent in fiscal year 2019, which begins July 1. The amount of revenue from meters would jump from $2.1 million to $5 million.

 

This budget includes an array of new fees and reduces the city’s dependence upon the earnings tax, which in FY18 funded more than $71 out of every $100 of city general fund spending. In FY2019, it will fund about $69 out of every $100. Cincinnati’s reliance on the tax has concerned the city’s budget office for years. On-street parking rates will increase in all parts of Cincinnati, while hours will be extended by varying amounts, depending on the neighborhood.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2018/06/07/how-much-would-parking-rates-in-cincinnati.html

"Permit Parking Only" signs have gone up all over OTR and the parking meters at those locations have been removed. I assume the regulations went into effect on January 1. But so far I have seen zero cars parked in those zones. Have the parking permits been distributed yet? Is it being enforced yet?

The zones are up but not being enforced until February 1. Throughout January, the city is only issuing warnings to unpermitted cars parked in the zones. For the savvy visitor, that means a month of 24/7 free parking.

Yes, the signs have gone up, but where have parking meters been removed?  Some new parking meters are being installed.  I've seen new meters on 12th where it was free, and the map that the City put out shows new meters on Liberty and a few other spots.

 

The permit just allows you to park in places that were already free.  

This has created alot of controversy on Reddit thus far.

 

Alot of service industry workers who work in bars and restaurants in otr can't afford parking garages daily in otr. They don't make enough to justify the costs.

 

Parking north of liberty has been suggested but many of them are still afraid to walk in that area at night and fear for there safety.

 

Many of them acknowledge about taking the bus and parking elsewhere but many also admit they are from the outer suburbs and are uncomfortable with using the bus as well. 

 

I truly feel for these workers. They are not urban minded. They are suburbanites and are being put in shackles for being so.

The Short North has required parking permits in a bunch of locations all the way up past OSU for years now, and the service industry folks seem to be doing just fine along High Street there. Sure there will be some growing pains getting used to the new system but people will figure it out. 

Edited January 7, 20196 yr by BigDipper 80

3 hours ago, troeros said:

This has created alot of controversy on Reddit thus far.

 

Alot of service industry workers who work in bars and restaurants in otr can't afford parking garages daily in otr. They don't make enough to justify the costs.

 

Parking north of liberty has been suggested but many of them are still afraid to walk in that area at night and fear for there safety.

 

Many of them acknowledge about taking the bus and parking elsewhere but many also admit they are from the outer suburbs and are uncomfortable with using the bus as well. 

 

I truly feel for these workers. They are not urban minded. They are suburbanites and are being put in shackles for being so.

 If only we had, like, a streetcar people could take from other parts of the basin to their jobs in OTR. 

4 hours ago, troeros said:

This has created alot of controversy on Reddit thus far.

 

Alot of service industry workers who work in bars and restaurants in otr can't afford parking garages daily in otr. They don't make enough to justify the costs.

 

Parking north of liberty has been suggested but many of them are still afraid to walk in that area at night and fear for there safety.

 

Many of them acknowledge about taking the bus and parking elsewhere but many also admit they are from the outer suburbs and are uncomfortable with using the bus as well. 

 

I truly feel for these workers. They are not urban minded. They are suburbanites and are being put in shackles for being so.

 

Are that many suburbanites really coming into OTR to do food service type of work? I'm sorry, but if someone is going to take a job in OTR and then say you're scared to walk a few blocks down the street or to ride transit, I don't have sympathy for them. Learn how to exist in a city.

 

On weekdays/weeknights, parking around Findlay Market and Rhinegeist should be pretty easy, and they can walk or take the streetcar down to their job. Or a Metro bus would probably take them directly from their suburb to the urban core.

 

Parking in the urban core is only going to get more difficult and more expensive as the popularity of Downtown and OTR grow. These are normal growing pains that Cincinnatians will go through as we transition from "downtown is dead, no one wants to go there" to "downtown is thriving and jam packed with activity."

16 hours ago, Jimmy Skinner said:

where have parking meters been removed?

 

There used to be 3 parking meters on the south side of 14th Street between Main Street and Goetz Alley, basically on the side of The Pony. Those were removed when the parking permit signs were installed.

10 hours ago, edale said:

 If only we had, like, a streetcar people could take from other parts of the basin to their jobs in OTR. 

 

The same argument could be used against the parking permits, couldn't it?  You'd expect people who live in OTR to be able to go car free, use transit, and not rely upon cheap parking. I find this permit system to be at odds with other measure that are being taken, such as the removal of parking minimums and the investment in transit and pedestrian infrastructure in OTR. While the city is making strides investing in those sorts of measures, they're simultaneously subsidizing on street parking in one of the city's densest neighborhoods. In theory, nearly every street spot in OTR should have a meter, just like nearly every spot downtown has a meter. The meters could bring in a couple dollars per hour instead of the couple dollars per month the annual permits generate. Those funds could be spent on pedestrian improvements and projects like the Liberty Street diet (or parking garages, if we never see OTR residents start to drop cars).

I honestly don't have a strong feeling one way or another about whether this resident parking permit program, as it was implemented, is a good idea or not. I think if I was made parking czar, I would've implemented a system where all long-term parkers must use garages while on-street spaces are reserved for short term parking only. The biggest flaw with the current system (IMO) is that it allows people who live in OTR and own a car but only use it one or two times a week to store their car on the street for a very low price. Those people should be parked in a garage, not on the street.

 

The thing I really like about the program is that it's forcing the parking issue. In an urban neighborhood like OTR, there will always be more demand for on-street parking than the number of available spaces. You can argue all day about what percentage of those spaces should be metered, reserved for neighborhood residents, reserved for employees of neighborhood businesses, or free-for-alls with no restrictions. More people should realize that parking in the city is a hassle and it's cheaper and easier to just take the bus. More people should realize that it's totally fine and to park a few blocks away from your destination and walk or take the streetcar.

Our city leaders and SORTA do not do enough to promote the bus and/or streetcar as a viable alternative. The parking permit is the stick approach for visitors but we need the carrot too. 

Check out the residential permit parking program that Columbus just rolled out for the Short North, and how it compares to what Cincinnati did for OTR:

 

On 1/22/2019 at 11:04 PM, ColDayMan said:

New Short North Parking Rules Now in Effect

 

Today marks the first day of implementation for the long-awaited and long-debated Short North Parking Plan. The bags have been removed from new parking signs throughout the neighborhood and tickets will be issued — although no fines will be associated with those tickets for at least two weeks, according to the city.

 

The warning tickets are meant to educate residents and visitors who may not have heard about the many changes being rolled out in the area, which stretches north to south from East Ninth Avenue to I-670 and east to west from North Sixth Street to Neil Avenue.

 

The biggest change is that the free parking that was previously available on non-permit residential streets is now gone. All residents in the district are required to get permits to park on the street, and visitors will need to pay to park via the new ParkColumbus app.

 

More below:

https://www.columbusunderground.com/new-short-north-parking-rules-now-in-effect-bw1

 

 

The biggest difference is that Columbus' residential zones are not completely restricted to residents with parking permits. Residents with parking permits get to park there for free at all hours (including overnight), but visitors are still allowed to park there for up to 3 hrs. during daytime hours (8 am to 10 pm) as long as they pay for parking. I think this would be a good compromise for some OTR side streets since I frequently see empty spots during the day when many OTR residents have driven out of the neighborhood to go to work during the day.

 

The other big difference is that Columbus is running a free shuttle specifically marketed towards people who work in the Short North, so they can park downtown where more parking is available and ride the shuttle to their job. Cincinnati, on the other hand, simply did not bother to ask the question, "Where will people who work at bars and restaurants in OTR park?" Many of these people had been parking in the free zones that are now residential only. It would be fairly simple to encourage them to park at The Banks garage where there is a huge amount of underutilized parking and ride the streetcar up to 12th & Vine. Maybe create a monthly pass that includes parking at The Banks and streetcar fare, and sell it at a discount only to registered OTR workers.

1 hour ago, taestell said:

Check out the residential permit parking program that Columbus just rolled out for the Short North, and how it compares to what Cincinnati did for OTR:

 

 

The biggest difference is that Columbus' residential zones are not completely restricted to residents with parking permits. Residents with parking permits get to park there for free at all hours (including overnight), but visitors are still allowed to park there for up to 3 hrs. during daytime hours (8 am to 10 pm) as long as they pay for parking. I think this would be a good compromise for some OTR side streets since I frequently see empty spots during the day when many OTR residents have driven out of the neighborhood to go to work during the day.

 

The other big difference is that Columbus is running a free shuttle specifically marketed towards people who work in the Short North, so they can park downtown where more parking is available and ride the shuttle to their job. Cincinnati, on the other hand, simply did not bother to ask the question, "Where will people who work at bars and restaurants in OTR park?" Many of these people had been parking in the free zones that are now residential only. It would be fairly simple to encourage them to park at The Banks garage where there is a huge amount of underutilized parking and ride the streetcar up to 12th & Vine. Maybe create a monthly pass that includes parking at The Banks and streetcar fare, and sell it at a discount only to registered OTR workers.

 

Since there is lots of parking available during the day, why not let people park in the residential zones during the day with a time restriction for free. This is the case in the neighborhoods surrounding downtown Philly. On streets without meters, residents with a permit can park indefinitely, but visitors have a 2 hour limit. 

If I were parking czar, as my first tweak to the existing OTR program, I would choose a few side streets to change from resident-only to resident-flex which would allow non-residential parking during the day. Purely residential streets like Orchard should probably remain residential-only 24/7, but streets like 14th that are more of a mix of businesses and residences could be converted to resident-flex. However I'd restrict the non-resident hours a little bit more than Columbus did, maybe 8 am to 6 pm, and keep the maximum at around 2 or 3 hours so that it isn't abused by downtown office workers finding free street parking in OTR during the day. That way people visiting OTR businesses throughout the day can park in these spaces, but in the evenings, visitors know that they need to use a metered space or park in a garage, and those resident-flex spaces turn back to resident-only as OTR residents are getting back to the neighborhood after their 9-5 jobs. I'm not sure why we would make those spaces free since we already have the parking app infrastructure in place and already have parking enforcement officers walking these streets daily.

 

With all of that said, I wonder if Pendleton residents are starting to think about making tweaks to their (totally separate) residential parking pass program. Right now several streets in Pendleton require residential passes to park from 7am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. So it seems like the main goal with that program was to prevent downtown office workers from parking on those streets during the day. However with more and more businesses opening in Pendleton, I would think that residents would be more concerned about visitors parking on their streets during evenings and weekends. It seems like the program is backwards in a way.

So... did the city abandon their plans to switch to multi-space kiosks? There are still parts of the urban core (i.e. Main Street in OTR) where one side of the street has individual meters at each space, while the other side has "pay to park" signs directing people to use the kiosk. It's extremely confusing for visitors.

 

 

 

Updated Parking Meters Coming To Downtown Cincinnati

 

Cincinnati City Council will vote Wednesday on an ordinance to spend $500,000 to replace 1,700 smart parking meters in the Central Business District. 

 

City economic development director Phil Denning told the Budget and Finance Committee meeting Monday it's because of changing technology.

 

"The meters connect with one another and with the system on the 2G wireless network, and that is being phased out by the end of 2019," Denning said.

I guess that assumes the city has an actual plan to deal with parking.  Seems more like spotty, half-@$$ed implementations and last minute revelations that could have been avoided with even a junior project manager.

Speaking of modern parking meters: I was in Charleston, WV a few weeks ago, parked at a meter, and paid for my parking via the ParkMobile app. As soon as I paid, the meter at that space displayed "paid in app" and then displayed how much time was remaining. So the meters themselves were connected to the same system as the app and accurately reflected that I had paid for the space.

 

Meanwhile in Cincinnati, our parking app is not connected to our meters in any way. If you pay for a space in the app, the meter continues to blink red and not reflect the fact that you've paid. So parking enforcement officers must do twice the work: first, check the meter to see if you've paid, and then use their handheld device to check a separate system to see if you paid via the app.

I think Charleston signed a pretty bad deal with a company to handle their parking meters. They get very little money, and very little control over the operations. So they might have good technology, but it comes at a cost. I was looking through the details of that compared to the Cincinnati proposal in 2013-ish, and our proposal seemed to include way more local governmental control of cost increases, enforcement, etc.

In response to business concerns, Cincinnati changes Over-the-Rhine parking plan

 

Cincinnati City Council changed the Over-the-Rhine parking permit system on Thursday to allow for “flex” spaces that would be available to the general public during the day for a fee.

 

Since the city implemented the program earlier this year to restrict about 500 non-metered spaces south of Liberty Street to residents with permits, it has been met with a flurry of complaints from OTR business owners, who say their employees and customers have been hurt.

 

Council considered a number of ordinances changing the program but settled on one from Councilman David Mann. 

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2019/03/14/in-response-to-business-concerns-cincinnati.html

 

Making 200 of the 500 spots into flex spots (non-residents can park there during the day but not at night) is a good compromise. We should see how this plays out over the next 3-4 months before making any additional changes.

So how does this stop from all the construction workers quickly taking these flex spots....

Does anyone here know who manages that U Square parking garages?  I have heard through the grapevine that a lot of UC students and area workers figured out that they could simply lift the gates at these garages and have been parking for free there all year.  The management of the garage is using camera footage to ID these people and they're actually prosecuting. 

 

What's more, since some of them have been found to have parked for free on a daily basis, they are at risk of being charged with 5th Degree felonies:

 

Quote

 

Felony of the Fifth Degree Theft

Theft is a felony of the fifth degree in Ohio when one of the following conditions exists:

• the value of property or services stolen is more than $1,000, but less than $7,500
• the property is a credit/debt card, check, or other negotiable instrument
• the property is a vehicle license plate or temporary placard, a blank vehicle title form, or a blank form for a driver's license. ( § 2913.02(B)(2), § 2913.71.)

The punishment for a felony of the fifth degree in Ohio includes a prison term ranging from six to 12 months and a fine of not more than $2,500. ( § 2929.14(A), § 2929.18(A)(3).)

 

 

 

^ That's disingenuous. That's a parking garage under a park, and it was taken on a cold December morning the weekend after Christmas, while it was pouring down rain. That garage is full whenever the weather is nice, or if there's an event at Washington Park or Music Hall. The problem (and it's in no way unique to OTR) is accommodating peak demand while accounting for residents who by and large refuse to live car free.

1 hour ago, DEPACincy said:

This is literally the equivalent of taking a photo of a snowy scene and saying “I thought climate change was making the earth warmer?? Not so sure about that”

 

There is an abundance of available parking in the urban core at any given time, it's just not exactly where people want it to be and sometimes not as cheap as people would like it to be. People will complain about there being "nowhere to park" if they can't park directly in front of their destination. The Washington Park and Mercer garages fill up regularly because those are the ones right in the heart of where a lot of people go. I don't think the Ziegler, Parkhaus, Gateway, 1010, or Town Center garages get completely full unless there is some confluence of multiple huge events happening in OTR simultaneously. Not to mention the multiple parking garages that exist in the CBD which are virtually never full outside of normal business hours, and the nearly 8,000 parking spaces that exist south of Third Street.

I always see "monthly parking only" signs up at Parkhaus, Gateway, and Mercer on weekdays through lunchtime.  Parkhaus thins out in the afternoon when courthouse visitors leave.  I don't think Ziegler fills up.  So for weekday daytime parking, you're going to have some trouble.  Evenings and weekends are a breeze, so it's all a matter of what time you're concerned about.  I'm curious what Ziegler is like at those times because of its resident component.  

Yeah, my statement isn't really about the M-F 9-5 parking situation. Of course downtown needs plenty of parking to meet that peak demand, until our region gets serious about luring downtown office workers out of their single-occupancy vehicles. However, as a result of that glut of parking, there is plenty of parking available for the night and weekend visitors. At one point I parked in Parkhaus and had to pay extra for a "24/7" monthly pass. They also sell a cheaper monthly pass for M-F office workers that requires you to be out of the garage by a certain time (maybe 6 p.m.) so that they can turn over those spaces and rent them by the hour in the evenings and on weekends.

 

Also, for awhile, the city-owned Town Center Garage was doing a "park and ride" special where if you parked there on weekends, you got a free all-day streetcar pass. They stopped doing it, probably because people discovered the garage and the city no longer needed to market it as much. It would be great if the county would do the same with underground garage at The Banks...lure people down there to park in a garage that has tons of excess capacity most weekends and ride into OTR where the parking is more scarce.

2 hours ago, Ram23 said:

^ That's disingenuous. That's a parking garage under a park, and it was taken on a cold December morning the weekend after Christmas, while it was pouring down rain. That garage is full whenever the weather is nice, or if there's an event at Washington Park or Music Hall. The problem (and it's in no way unique to OTR) is accommodating peak demand while accounting for residents who by and large refuse to live car free.

 

There was an event at Music Hall yesterday. And lots of people live around Washington Park and supposedly need garage parking. On the Sunday after Christmas, when many are not working, why weren't more of them parked here?

Monday at 2:51 PM, in the middle of the workday:

 

Washington Park - 300 of 450 spaces available.

 

Now I know some people are off today because it's the Monday before New Years. But that also means people have time to be out exploring. And the weather is clear today. And OTR residents who use their car to commute and park in Washington Park should be parked there today. 

 

Yet the garage is only 1/4 full. 

 

We do not have a parking problem in OTR. Or anywhere in Cincinnati for that matter.

 

 

 

2 hours ago, ZoeBarnes said:

This is literally the equivalent of taking a photo of a snowy scene and saying “I thought climate change was making the earth warmer?? Not so sure about that”

 

No it's not. Because you can go there just about any time of any day and there are multiple spots open.

You are underestimating the cheapness of cincinnatiians.  Since the OTR permits started there has been fairly large influx of daily office parking in prospect hill, up sycamore, etc.  

39 minutes ago, Traveler Joe said:

You are underestimating the cheapness of cincinnatiians.  Since the OTR permits started there has been fairly large influx of daily office parking in prospect hill, up sycamore, etc.  

 

Is that a bad thing? People who don't want to pay for the garage will park farther away where there is an abundance of parking available and people that are willing to pay will park closer. When I drive downtown (which is less often than I bike, bus, or take ride-share) I usually park north of Liberty or in the Betts-Longworth district on a street for free because I actually enjoy walking. Other people want to park closer to their destination so they pay. 

1 hour ago, DEPACincy said:

 

No it's not. Because you can go there just about any time of any day and there are multiple spots open.

So there is only an issue if there is never a single space open? Climate change is only a problem if every day is hot? I’m not taking a stand about OTR parking here, but that tweet was not reasonable..

I guess I get your point that the guy's tweet and the picture he included doesn't prove anything...but the actual point he made is absolutely correct. There is always a place to park downtown, it's just not always 200 feet from the person's destination.

1 hour ago, ZoeBarnes said:

So there is only an issue if there is never a single space open? 

 

Wait, what? I think we're talking past each other. 

 

What I'm saying is that you can go to Washington Park any day of the week, any time of day, and there are LOTS of spots open. Sure, the picture doesn't prove anything, but it gets to the point that there is not a parking problem in OTR. You could go take that picture every day and you'd only see a full garage like 5 days out of the year. 

you would be surprised to learn that that is not true at all. WP and Mercer are full quite on a regular basis. Keep in mind that because of the number of pass holders, ‘full’ doesn’t mean every single space is taken.  Quite often WP relies on valeting within the garage to allow for stacking cars in the drive aisles.  The numbers are quite convincing. Why do you think there was such a big stink about the SCPA parking spaces?

7 minutes ago, DEPACincy said:

 

Wait, what? I think we're talking past each other. 

 

What I'm saying is that you can go to Washington Park any day of the week, any time of day, and there are LOTS of spots open. Sure, the picture doesn't prove anything, but it gets to the point that there is not a parking problem in OTR. You could go take that picture every day and you'd only see a full garage like 5 days out of the yea

^ Because some people believe its their god given right to park free as close as humanly possible to their destination. The bottom line is there is an absurd amount of parking in the core and now with more coming because of FCC. Mercer and Washington Park may be full on weekend nights but I've never had problem parking in the Kroger employee garage during those times. 

Old Federated Department Stores garage on January 5, 2020: