Cars parked along State Street in downtown Harrisburg.
Not infrequently, a Harrisburg resident comes up to the public microphone during a City Council meeting and complains about–you guessed it–parking.
You read the same types of things in the comment section of PennLive or hear them just by talking with someone on the street or in a bar. Too expensive, aggressive enforcement, not friendly, no room for error.
And, every time, I think to myself: “Haven’t these people been paying attention?”
The deal is done, the cake baked, the horse outta the barn. The mayor and council can’t do anything because the city, drowning in red ink, signed off on an insanely complicated deal that privatized the parking system to pay off a big chunk of its overwhelming debt.
Game over. Get used to it.
And then, it turned out, I was wrong.
Over the past week, Mayor Eric Papenfuse announced a series of changes to the parking system that required creativity, boldness and no small measure of salesmanship.
It meant intervening in an area where he had no real power or authority. It required believing that, despite abundant evidence to the contrary, obstinate, invisible Park Harrisburg might be open to change–change it contractually did not have to make. It mandated putting together a series of improvements to the parking system, finding the money to fund some of them, and selling the package to all the parties (the operator, the manager, the state, City Council, Pango).
The cynics might look at the result and see small potatoes. Starting April 1, the “happy hour” rate from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. will be reduced by $1 per hour. Motorists can park for free for four hours on Saturday but only if they use the Pango mobile app. Beginning in May, they can park during lunchtime for just $3 total, but must use the River Street garage. Park Harrisburg has promised a five-minute grace period before issuing tickets and says its enforcement officers will be retrained as “ambassadors” who will engage the public, not alienate it.
To cover any lost revenue to Park Harrisburg, Papenfuse has pledged $285,000 in “hotel tax” funds left over from last year, money earmarked for marketing the city. He believes that getting more people downtown is a good use of the city’s marketing dollars.
I agree.
For the past year, Harrisburg has found itself the victim of what I would call an anti-marketing campaign. People have been put off by aggressive enforcement, pricey tickets and a distant, uncaring operator. Local media have piled on, so that, day after day, week after week, people have heard a single message: Stay out of Harrisburg!
Papenfuse’s actions helped change the tenor of the conversation. Sure, some people will always regard free parking as a birthright. Others, however, may believe that it’s worth a couple of bucks after work to get easy, walkable access from McGrath’s to Stock’s, from Cafe Fresco to Federal Taphouse, from Cork & Fork to Suba–among a dozen other places downtown. These are the people who are reachable, who might be lured back by a little good news, by a cheaper rate, by a few free hours on Saturday.
Is there a risk for Harrisburg? Yes. Papenfuse’s move is a gamble, though, like a good gambler, he has limited his downside. The city can’t lose more than the $285,000 in hotel tax funds, money that, by design, is intended to bring outsiders in. And that’s a worst-case scenario. Assuming some people respond positively to the changes, the city might lose far less, maybe nothing.
Meanwhile, Papenfuse has maximized his upside. He’s out to prove to Park Harrisburg that lower rates will actually increase their business and boost their revenues. If he’s right, the parking operator may see the value in lower rates permanently, and downtown businesses may recover lost customers. Meanwhile, unlike most marketing campaigns, the results will be directly measurable and some, perhaps all, of the money may remain unspent, available for another initiative down the road.
Papenfuse has proven himself to be a creative problem-solver. He took something most people (myself included) thought was done, over, cooked. He revived it, sold it to multiple parties, and, starting Wednesday, parkers, businesses and the city will be the beneficiaries.
In the past, I’ve poked some fun at the mayor for his boundless enthusiasm. This achievement, though, is something he has every right to be excited about.
