Seattleites might have a new reason to support the controversial “direct action” protesters who gather and march on Capitol Hill nearly every night. The city says protesters have destroyed dozens of parking pay stations and there are currently no plans for repairs. The vandalism has caused thousands of dollars in damage and lost revenue for the city.
“It is unfortunately true that close to 80 pay stations have been seriously vandalized, and graffiti has abounded,” a Seattle Department of Transportation representative wrote to a CHS reader who contacted the city about the problem and shared the message with us. “The Capitol Hill neighborhood has taken the brunt of much of the damage to the City’s parking infrastructure.”
Some of the lost revenue might be offset by an increase in parking tickets with parking enforcement officers again issuing fines after this summer’s COVID-19 grace period. With the pay stations busted, many more drivers are risking a ticket over using the city’s online payment system. And searching for a working meter is a waste of time. Vandals have destroyed pretty much every station for blocks around Cal Anderson.
SPD says it is looking into parking enforcement issues related to the damaged stations but has not yet provided an update to CHS.
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Meanwhile, the demonstrators damaging and tagging the meters seem to be aware of the enforcement and revenue implications for the city. Most signage marking the paid parking and the location information needed to complete an online payment has also been heavily tagged, painted over, or torn down.
SDOT says it has tried repairing broken meters only to find them vandalized again.
“Although most protests have been peaceful, we are seeing recurring damage to our parking pay stations,” the rep writes. “We have repaired them previously only to have them vandalized in the next day or two.”
For the reader who contacted CHS, the meters and paid parking are part of life in the busy core of Capitol Hill. “I live in an RPZ and I’m close enough to walk or bike to anything on the Hill so it doesn’t affect me personally, but I know how tough it is for merchants as is so yeah, I admit I’ve taken the wanton assault on parking infrastructure a little bit personally,” they write. “What can I say, I’m not an anarchist, I actually believe that our local government has the moral and legal authority to manage the scarce resource of the public right of way.”
SDOT, meanwhile, says it does have teams working on graffiti, “though right now the outcome is similar, and the tags reappear very rapidly.”
“It is certainly our intention to repair and refurbish our paid parking assets and signage – we are working to understand when is a good time to make more repairs to equipment so that it will remain functional,” the representative writes. “Until then, we encourage people to use the mobile payment function, and to be as patient as possible.”
The City of Seattle says it operates around 1,700 pay stations “controlling approximately 12,000 parking spaces.” It predicted paid parking revenue to remain flat compared to 2019 with a forecast of around $39 million added to the city’s general fund this year before the COVID-19 crisis bit into the fees. Traffic fines revenue increased in recent years to around $40 million a year boosted by more than $1 million from camera enforcement revenue. In 2016, the City Council backed off a plan that would have directed some of the parking meter revenue to the neighborhoods where it was generated.
Seattle regularly rebalances its paid parking rates in an ongoing effort to balance capacity and demand with what costs drivers will withstand. In some parts of Capitol Hill like Pike/Pine on busy pre-COVID weekend nights, the city has found the appetite for parking to be pretty much insatiable — no matter the rate. In July, Seattle reinstituted on-street paid parking with initial rates set at $0.50 an hour, the lowest the Seattle municipal code allows.
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November 05, 2020 at 03:03PM
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City says vandalism putting parking pay stations out of commission around Capitol Hill protest zone - CHS Capitol Hill Seattle News
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