Allentown Parking Fees to Double?

Allentown Proposes Doubling Center City Meter Fees
And all parking meters would have to be fed until 10 p.m. six nights a week.
Randy Kraft , WFMZ

My Comments About The Article AboveI fail to see how this will encourage anyone to abandon the malls' free parking to come downtown to eat or shop.(1) There are those who will argue the mall doesn't offer free parking since it's built into their stores prices. Well unless you can find something your looking for cheaper then they it's a moot point.

(2) If I want to make a quick stop and pick up a $20 item why should I pay 10% of it's cost just to park?

(3) What are the chances of getting a parking ticket in a store's lot outside of the city?

(4) If the city were truly sincere about turning over the spaces it would be no problem at all to limit parking times (w/o meters) varying those limits depending certain key locations.
Let's face reality. This is about making money for the city.. period. It's not about customer convenience nor turning over parking spaces. Stores and homeowners are already paying taxes to maintain these streets. Anything above that is frosting on the cake for city coffers. What cities fail to take into account is how visitors feel about making the trip downtown which can turn out to be neither convenient nor less expensive. It's a simple matter of supply and demand and how we intend to market ourselves..

How About This Instead?
Let's get back to the old way of doing business.. park and shop.

Why not offer a program to store, hotel and restaurant owners allowing them to issue tokens? They could be used either for current parking on the decks or in the future for meters when customers return downtown on their next visit. This would encourage the desired deck use since visitors would be able to use the tokens right away.

Offering a swath of parking with time limits (meter free) would still allow the city to ticket anyone exceeding those limits while at the same time meeting the goal of turning over spaces. In addition this would result in the savings of not having to buy/rent or maintaining parking devices. Any revenue loses (resulting from the removal of meters) could be readily made up by charging those businesses who choose not to participate in the token program based on their business volume.

Either we can continue to follow the same old ways discouraging visitors or find a better way. One thing is for sure. Unless the city has something to offer that can't be found anywhere else people aren't going to spend one nickel more then they have to for parking.

One thing better then a 'smart meter' is to have no meter at all!


UPDATED
(04/16/2015)
Well now it's official. Allentown city council approved the measure. Starting Saturday, April 25, 2015 parking rates will double going to $2 in center city. The hours will also be extended till 10:00 PM instead of the former 6:00PM.