The recent closure of Alici's Bistro, a restaurant on Harris Place, shows the inappropriate imbalance in the town of Brattleboro's approach between the need to increase parking revenues and the need to provide convenient parking for local businesses.
The Harris Place lot was the last downtown parking lot that used meters until this summer, when the town removed all but 14 of the 64 meters in the lot and converted it into permit-only parking. Anyone who parks in those spaces without a permit during enforcement hours - from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. - gets a ticket.
Carol Coulombe, Brattleboro's parking enforcement coordinator, made the decision unilaterally. According to the Brattleboro Reformer, she decided that since her department did not have the money to replace the aging parking meters, she would remove them.
The parking enforcement department in Brattleboro is what's known as an “enterprise” agency, meaning that it has to generate the revenues to operate the town parking lots and the Transportation Center on Flat Street through parking fees and fines.
When your department has to fund itself, your job becomes focused on maximizing revenue at the expense of all other considerations, including customer service.
Coulombe did not bother to tell Musa Alici, the owner of the restaurant that bore his name, that nearly all the parking in front of his establishment was changed to permit-only. Aside from notifying the police chief, she is not required to tell anyone if she makes such changes.
Suddenly, Alici's potential customers had to park in the High-Grove or Harmony lots, both a good distance away from his restaurant.
Alici has not had an easy time of it since he opened his restaurant in 2007. He has had long-running battles with the Selectboard over signage and operating hours. An electrical fire in December 2008 and the lingering effects of the recession also cut deeply into his business.
But, in a Facebook post, Alici squarely placed the blame for the closure of his restaurant on what he called “little town politics” and “unfair, unequal, and anti-business” treatment by the town. He wrote that the parking change dealt the last, fatal blow to his business.
Granted, the town is under no obligation to provide parking spaces for downtown businesses. But for all the talk from officials about helping small businesses, the town does little to address the number-one peeve of downtown patrons - inconsistent and incomprehensible parking policies.
Brattleboro has developed a reputation for hyper-aggressive parking enforcement, combined with parking fees and fines that are high for the size of this town.
The machines in the “pay and display” lots are balky - and, if you don't have change in your pocket, unusable.
The town has a “smart card” system for some of the downtown meters, but it is poorly promoted and inconvenient for visitors.
And, there's still talk about charging for parking on Sundays and extending the hours for metered parking.
If the town wants to position itself as a destination for shopping, dining, and the arts, it needs parking policies that don't drive visitors away. It also needs to view parking as a service and not as a profit center.