{"id":122311,"date":"2013-12-24T22:00:07","date_gmt":"2013-12-25T05:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/free-parking-bugs-merchants-2\/"},"modified":"2013-12-24T22:00:07","modified_gmt":"2013-12-25T05:00:07","slug":"free-parking-bugs-merchants-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/free-parking-bugs-merchants-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Free parking bugs merchants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Drivers
Drivers circled downtown Durango on Friday as parking spots proved difficult to find now that meters are free during the Christmas shopping season. The city is installing 1,200 new parking meters.<\/span>JENNAYE DERGE\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As sleigh bells ring and the countdown to Christmas begins, the city has been promoting free downtown parking for holiday shoppers as it replaces 1,200 parking meters. But there is just one small problem: There\u2019s no where left to park.<\/p>\n

Durango Business Development Manager Bob Kunkel said timing meter replacements, originally slated for August, was the city\u2019s move, and promoting free parking for holiday shopping was a sliver lining accompanying the delay into December.<\/p>\n

But some say it backfired.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get it,\u201d said Alan Cuenca, owner of Put-a-Cork-in-It, 121 East 10th St. \u201cIdealistically, it was a good idea, but ultimately what has happened is all the employees that work downtown are taking full advantage of the free parking, and not leaving any for people who come downtown to shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuenca said he has noticed some motorists driving dangerously, pulling aggressive maneuvers to secure their spot before spreading commerce and holiday cheer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s created a frantic frenzy just to find a spot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jackson Clark, owner of Toh-Atin Gallery at 145 West Ninth St., said he doesn\u2019t understand the timing coming during the holidays.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the city didn\u2019t think the whole thing through,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been difficult, and we\u2019ve had costumers who have complained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark said a slower time of year would have been better for businesses.<\/p>\n

More opportune times could have been selected he said. \u201cWe have down time in January. That would have been the time to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are, however, two sides to every downtown Christmas dollar.<\/p>\n

At 707 Main Ave., Magpie\u2019s Newsstand owner Tom Mulligan said he appreciates the extra encouragement to get people on Main Avenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a great thing,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t see a downside to this, myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mulligan said parking might be tough, but it won\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n

\u201cI imagine some people will take advantage of it, but it can\u2019t go on forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kunkel said some congestion had been anticipated, and it reveals the importance and added functionality of the new parking meters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about (congestion) as a possible outcome, and I\u2019ve noticed that every space in town is taken, but this enforces the job that parking meters do, and that\u2019s to create turnover,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Turnover, he added, equals one thing: more shoppers for businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why a parking spot is valuable to a merchant,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s turnover, and the more turnover the better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durango Business Improvement District Manager Tim Walsworth said he is getting mixed reports from downtown merchants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been monitoring this very closely, and out on the street talking to people,\u201d he said. \u201cAnecdotally, some merchants don\u2019t like it. However, others are reporting more traffic in their business and a great week of sales.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tax collections early next year, he said, will tell how effective free Christmas-season parking has been.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t really know until the sales-tax figures come out in February, but from the merchants we\u2019ve spoken to, most of them are saying it\u2019s a good month.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Toh-Atin, Clark said many of his costumers are calling in business, saying they couldn\u2019t park.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s hard if people can\u2019t walk two or three blocks,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are a lot of people like that in Durango. People just call and say, \u2018I couldn\u2019t get down there.'\u201d<\/p>\n

Kunkel said an email went out to merchants asking them to encourage employees to forsake open spots for shoppers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe premise was great,\u201d Cuenca said, \u201cbut it didn\u2019t turn out that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue should resolve itself when 1,200 new meters will be up and running, along with the cost to park downtown.<\/p>\n

bmathis@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

businesses say Durango plan has backfired<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":122312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6363],"tags":[188,950,13,70],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-122311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ds-news","tag-dolores-star","tag-durango","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-news-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122311"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=122311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}