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https://n2v.almanacnews.com/square/print/2015/12/08/tis-the-season-to-be-jolly

Town Square

Tis The Season To Be Jolly

Original post made by Scrooge, Menlo Park: Downtown, on Dec 8, 2015

During the holiday season, we all get our jollies in different ways.

For the City of Menlo Park, they may get their jollies by issuing enormous amounts of downtown parking tickets, at $45.00 a pop. As the City of Menlo Park's coffers dramatically grow in size, nearly desperate merchants are struggling to keep their doors open. You might call this robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The City is known for its aggressive parking enforcement - at the expense of shoppers and other consumers doing business at restaurants, stores, beauty salons, coffee houses and other retail establishments.

The illusion is that issuing tickets helps business; the facts may point to quite the opposite. Who are the winners and who are the losers? Keep in mind that Stanford Shopping Center and nearby Town and Country Village have NO PARKING ENFORCEMENT at all. Park all day if need be.

There is a lot to like about Menlo Park, but downtown parking tickets by two enthusiastic police department personnel is NOT one of them. Instead of discouraging business activity, what can the city do to ENCOURAGE business activity?

Comments

Posted by Downtown Shopper
a resident of Menlo Park: Downtown
on Dec 10, 2015 at 2:35 pm

Parking in downtown Menlo Park compared to other cities seems to result in constant parking enforcement citations. There must be a better way. A parking garage or two would likely help everyone, that is retailers, consumers and others. This may be a pipe dream, but getting serious about it in a way that is equitable could have a similar result as we find in Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Redwood City.

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Posted by Tunbridge Wells
a resident of Menlo Park: Allied Arts/Stanford Park
on Dec 11, 2015 at 12:42 pm
Tunbridge Wells is a registered user.

Seriously? The city has just extended parking time limits, giving people lots of extra time before they get a ticket. It is not hard to avoid getting a ticket. Just pay attention to where you are parking! If you need extra time, there are a couple of lots where you can pay a very small fee to park more than three hours. This is not hard, and whining about parking tickets is a favorite pastime in Menlo Park but come on. I've never received a parking ticket in downtown Menlo Park, because if I need to stay longer I park in a paid lot. Simple. If you don't want a ticket, just pay a little attention to where you park.

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