Ventura’s Proposed Parking Restrictions

* Re “Downtown Parking Restrictions to Begin,” May 26.

Ventura’s redevelopment agency has given millions of dollars of public money to private investors purportedly to stimulate downtown business. Now the city is proposing changing two-hour parking to 90 minutes and ticketing anyone who parks in the same block the same day. These shorter limits will have tourists and residents constantly checking to see if it is time to leave, rather than enjoying a leisurely lunch and a relaxing tour of available shops.

Downtown Ventura is not McDonald’s; faster turnover does not equal more money. To encourage downtown restaurant and retail prosperity the city should go in the other direction: Increase all two-hour parking spaces to three hours, allowing people time to eat, shop and enjoy. After all, what does the city think people are doing while parked in downtown Ventura--spending money in Oxnard?

The city sees merchants and employees using precious street parking as a problem. The solution is to make it easy for them to park in city lots with permits and / or spaces dedicated solely to them. Does the city need to be reminded that these merchants and employees are downtown Ventura, that without them there would be no need for downtown parking?

The surest way to lose a return tourist / customer is to have their last memory of our Downtown be the parking ticket on their windshield. In effect, the city is trading a $30 dollar ticket for that customer’s future Ventura commerce, because all the redevelopment millions and all the public relations stay-an-extra-day seminars will not bring this customer back to our town for a long, long time.

DIANE UNDERHILL

Ventura