IN OUR WORDS

We posed the question a few weeks ago in our “Weigh In” feature where we wrote: “It’s no secret that downtown Lapeer has been struggling for the last several years to attract and retain business in the city’s central business district. Some have suggested trying to make downtown Lapeer a destination for antique dealers and shoppers. If not that, a district where people come from afar to shop, dine and take in local entertainment. What kind of business would you support if it located downtown?”

We did not ask “What would you do to make downtown Lapeer more shopper-friendly?” nor even more directly, “Should the parking meters go?” Nonetheless, many responses to our original question have centered on the parking meters.

Lapeer businessman Paul Grondin wrote: “Secret? There is no secret. Downtown is dying and the city is focusing on speeding up that process. The continued aggravation of parking meters is a curse for every business person in town.”

An upset ex-downtown patron told us “I would go downtown if they didn’t have the damn parking meters.”

A little over a year ago, Lapeer City Commissioners voted to remove 111 parking meters, leaving 163 meters in place. The Commission last June voted to increase overtime parking fees from $10 to $20, and the parking meter violation fee was increased from $4 to $5 if paid within five days. The city eliminated the former $2 fine if paid within 24 hours.

“If we’re going to have a parking division I think we should try to make it self sustaining, and these increases will help us do that,” said Lapeer Police Dept. Chief Todd Alexander at the time. The department employs a part-time parking enforcement officer who works 30 hours a week.

We don’t believe it is in the best interest of the citizens and tax-paying businesses for the city to employ a “parking enforcement officer.” Take out the remaining meters, re-assign the parking enforcement officer and let the regular city police officers enforce the timed parking spaces. We think downtown business owners can police themselves and their employees when it to comes to squatting on the most desirable parking spaces. Those business owners understand that if they are finally to be rid of the curse of parking meters, they need to make sure they don’t squander the opportunity to invite former and new customers downtown by taking up the best spaces themselves.

Downtown Lapeer has lost two fine retail establishments in the past year thanks in part to shortsighted parking regulations. Who knows how many would-be shopper-diners are kept away by the irritation of parking meters and the threat of parking meter fines? Shoppers visiting Lapeer’s non-downtown retailers (Meijer, Walmart, Kohl’s, etc.) don’t have to worry about parking meters and fines.

Doing away with the parking meters would be a signal to businesses and patrons that the commissioners are listening and interested in keeping downtown Lapeer an inviting place to do business.

In spite of reduced retail businesses, there is a lot to recommend downtown Lapeer: clean and smooth sidewalks with attractive brick pavers, modern lighting in an 1900s motif, beautiful flower plantings in-season, the Farmers Market, the historic Court House and several good eating and drinking establishments, with a variety of fare and entertainment. Add in the PIX Theatre and Gallery 194, plus easy access to a beautiful and diverse City of Lapeer Parks system and you quickly realize there is much to appreciate in the downtown setting.

But as long as those “damn parking meters” remain, many citizens of the city itself as well as those from around the county will stay firmly out of downtown.

And that’s just a shame.

It’s time for the city commissioners to take action on something that their constituency has clearly mandated. If you seek prosperity for downtown Lapeer, Mr. and Ms. Commissioners, get rid of those meters!