PARKING WARS
Published:Sunday | September 25, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Keisha Hill, Gleaner Writer
Downtown Kingston is one of the busiest shopping districts in the Corporate Area and parking is a big problem.
Business leaders complain that the dearth of parking spaces is keeping shoppers away and stifling plans to breathe new life into the commercial district, while shoppers who drive to the area say they are turned off by thugs who charge a fee to use designated parking areas.
James Josephs, proprietor of the Joseph's department chain, thinks that the introduction of parking meters downtown would alleviate that problem.
"Now, if you had parking meters - and you charged, say, $100 an hour - no motorist would stay in the area where the meters were for the entire day," Josephs told a recent Gleaner Editors Forum.
He said many business operators have converted the front of their business places into delivery areas as the back doors are congested with street vendors. He also said many employers and employees park near their workplaces on the busy thoroughfare for the entire day.
Not much choice
"Early in the morning, when everyone comes to work, they take up the available parking spaces, but the customers need those spaces. So, their choice is either to park on a little piece of land that a man beckons them to, or they park where they shouldn't, and the wreckers tow away their vehicles," Josephs said.
The businessman who has outlets on King Street and Half-Way Tree, said the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) and the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) have primary responsibility for parking in downtown Kingston and would be the authorities to implement the meters.
"The parking meters would bring in a lot of money," he said. "A friend of mine did a study on street parking and believes in downtown alone the KSAC and UDC could get revenue of about four to five million dollars per week," Josephs continued.
Superintendent Steve McGregor, head of the Kingston Central Police Division of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, said the parking situation in the city has become almost unbearable.
"Parking is a sore point downtown. Where people want to do business isn't where the official parking spaces are. People want to park close to where they do business, so we have to find a way to get out of this. The KSAC, along with the business people, the police and the government, have to deal with residents in the business areas," McGregor said.
Unfortunately, drivers also have to contend with those persons who require payment from them to park or to wash their vehicles.
"You have some boys who work for the business people and hold their parking spots. They do this as their little hustling. What these guys do is unlawful and illegal," McGregor said.
He said that although they have arrested a number of these youngsters, if these persons who live in the downtown area continue to exist as they do, the problem will never end.
Joy Douglas, general manager of the UDC, said downtown Kingston was not designed to accommodate the number of vehicles that currently filter through the area.
Unanticipated traffic
"When downtown Kingston was laid out, it was not designed to accommodate the number of vehicles that currently pass through the area. Therefore, we have recognised that with regards to the redevelopment plan for downtown Kingston, part of the difficulty which people buying buildings and renovating them are facing is that there is no parking," Douglas said.
"Persons will call and express an interest in a particular building downtown, but when they come and do their evaluation they realise that they are going to have a parking problem," Douglas said.
She said the UDC was aware of the profits the economic and social entities can realise if suitable parking is made available and noted that her organisation already operates most of the parking spaces in downtown Kingston.
"Because there are thousands of parking spaces required for downtown, what we are signalling is that the plan that we have for the area is to identify other vacant lots where parking garages can be built to ease the situation and become investment opportunities," Douglas said.