By Mike Veves
August 27, 2008 09:38 pm One has to ask how many hundreds of thousands of dollars have been lost in revenue due to the lack of a paid parking plan for Haverhill. The notion that "business" will be hurt is, well, ludicrous. Who comes to downtown Haverhill to shop? Destination cities such as Portsmouth and Rockport are all thriving small business centers with parking meters in the central areas. Newburyport strictly enforces 2 time limits while Haverhill holds the prize for nail salons and dollar stores. Paying for parking has become just one other item on the agenda that collectively city leaders and downtown leadership cannot agree on. Most moderately sized cities in Massachusetts have parking lots in the central areas: you enter the lot, push a turnstyle, pull a ticket, and pay the fee when you leave. Haverhill has one large lot near Pentucket Bank with an upper deck. The restaurants downtown are clearly keeping Haverhill on the map. Restaurant parking spaces could be earmarked with validated tickets. There's plenty of creative ways to make sure restaurants were not hurt if there was paid parking. Creative programming takes, naturally, leadership, cooperation, and innovation. Obstinate political factions stymie Haverhill's ability to become first class. 'Territorial' concerns overcome cooperative efforts, keeping downtown in the situation it has been in for decades. A walk downtown shows restaurants like the Tap setting the standard for fun and outside eye appeal as well as window boxes on such shops as Make It Personal. Next door to each one of these enterprises, however, are eyesores and empty storefronts. Even if Haverhill eliminated paid meters from consideration, it foolish not to have an entrance and exit with a ticket for public parking lots. Patients at Pentucket Medical, the banks, or any other establishments agreed upon by the city could easily be validated and thus free, for those visiting doctors, doing business or visiting a restaurant. It is great that police are monitoring downtown parking, and even better that civilians will continue to perform that job later this fall. If the space says "one hour parking," then a vehicle there for an hour and a half is in violation. The police are not here to make our lives difficult; they are here to make our lives equitable and safe, but they have better things to do than look for parking scofflaws. Civilian ticketers are going to make the city operate better and use police for the work they should do. A cornerstone of Mayor Jim Fiorentini's downtown improvement was bringing in first-class restaurants, which is a great start. These eateries are holding downtown together, from what I can see. Without them, the situation would be dire. Naturally, the cost of gas makes downtown paid parking even more of a problem. For someone living in Haverhill's rural areas who drives a big vehicle or pickup, the cost of a drive to downtown is expensive. This compounds the problem for consumers. The gas problem is not going away as long as we keep catering to big oil executives and their stockholders. Haverhill's revenue problem will not go away either as long as city leaders and downtown planners cannot see eye-to-eye on developing revenue sources. As bad as it seems, paid downtown parking should have become a reality in Haverhill long ago. Cooperation, innovation, and creativity should have taken precedence over other interests that keep Haverhill in the dark ages. Isn't it time?
Mike Veves is a regular contributor to the Forum. ><p>
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