Of Potholes and Parking

July 9, 2015

If you’re visiting, you’ve probably noticed we have a bit of an issue in northern Michigan with potholes and parking. We locals who must negotiate the streets and deal with the parking year-round empathize.

First, thanks for visiting. You’ve picked a good time (at least in the Traverse City area), the calmer weeks between the crowd intensive National Cherry Festival and Traverse City Film Festival. We’re glad you’re here and hope you have a great time.

We’re sorry about the streets. Our local road commissions do what they can with the budgets they have and the short window of opportunity the weather presents to repair or rebuild streets. The crews work pretty hard trying to keep pace with overwhelming need.

You can thank our state legislature for the problem. They’ve concocted a bizarre formula that spreads gas tax revenues to plenty of recipients that have nothing at all to do with roads or bridges. Their attempt to "fix" the problem was on the ballot in May. It called for a monstrous 22 cents a gallon hike in the gas tax, which might have been fine if all the money had been earmarked for roads. But it wasn’t. Only 61 percent of the gas tax revenues would have ever been used on roads.

If you’re a Michigander, the odds are pretty good you were one of the more than 80 percent who cast "no" votes. If you’re visiting from another state, well, you probably have clueless politicians back home, too.

Then there is parking. In many northern Michigan towns, parking is simple and free. In Traverse City? It’s a problem for visitors and residents alike"¦and we didn’t actually have a say in the matter.

It is never going to be easy to find parking downtown this time of year in Traverse City. The crowds can exceed the ready availability of parking spots. The cost and confusion is another matter altogether.

Parking in Traverse City is controlled by an outfit called the Downtown Development Authority (DDA). DDAs were authorized by Congress in 1975 in an effort to help revitalize struggling downtown areas around the country. Traverse City started their DDA in 1978.

Appointed by the mayor and confirmed by our city commission, the DDA has significant power for an appointed board. With commission approval that has become nearly automatic, they can levy downtown businesses for street improvements and create special taxing districts for new development, among other things.

They also control all parking downtown and in Old Town.

Their parking operation has become a self-perpetuating growth industry unto itself.

Traverse City now has the most expensive parking in northern Michigan (with the exception of the public beach meters in little Empire). And the DDA doesn’t want you in any one spot too long unless it’s in one of their beloved parking structures. If you’re at some two- or three-hour meters you might have noticed – especially if you’re using a smartphone app – you can no longer just run back to your parked car and feed the meter. No, that was too simple.

Now they want you to move to another lot when your time is up, a preposterous notion that makes already difficult parking nearly impossible. And will lead to many parking tickets.

And you would think the meters and permits and parking monoliths would practically pay for themselves, but no.

Traverse City taxpayers now kick in an additional $500,000 annually to the DDA for their parking operations. That’s more than a 40 percent increase in the last two years. Why? The DDA keeps putting up parking meters, and that requires more employees to enforce and collect and that requires more meters for more revenue which requires more people... you get the idea.

Our city commission most recently approved another $90,000 to the DDA for parking without so much as a single bit of budgeting data to support the expense. Nice charts and graphs will be forthcoming, the commissioners were told, to justify money the DDA has already received.

The best part? The DDA just keeps any money beyond what they actually spend on parking. No budget to justify additional spending plus keeping anything not spent equals a very sweet deal for the DDA. Not so much for people parking or taxpayers.

We know the parking mess is plenty frustrating and it’s tempting to take it out on the merchants you’re visiting downtown. They would love to let you park free and are no happier about the situation than you. They, their employees and their year-round customers have to park downtown, too.

Something appears amiss between the city commission and the parking operation of the DDA. Approving budget increases without documentation is just bad policy.

Fortunately, some commissioners would like to revisit their parking relationship with the DDA. You can register your opinion by contacting them directly at 400 Boardman Avenue; Traverse City, 49684, or at citycommissioners@traversecitymi.gov.

They would love to hear from you.