For roughly two years there has been discussion and debate over parking meters on E. Center Street between Main and Broad.
At issue, the balance between places to park for residents versus those to park for customers. At first there was a vote to install meters. It was approved with little notice. When they were installed residents were upset and came to Council asking for them to be removed. A total of four meters were installed in the block on both sides of the street, so there remains non-metered parking. Plus the Circle is nearby as is north Broad which is not metered.
According to the Express-Times, Council had another vote on the meters on Monday and it was a tied vote to keep or remove them leaving Mayor Daugherty to cast the deciding vote which honored the original vote to install the meters (read the article here).
3 comments:
The meters were not installed with little notice; they were installed with absolutely no notice!
The majority do not want them, in fact only one person wants them! In a democracy one person does not get to impose their will on the majority, thus it seems Nazareth is not operating as a democracy but more like a dictatorship.
The owner of the jewelry store submitted no evidence to show meters were needed to help her busines; but residents provided detailed reports showing parking was available almost all the time. Yet Council and the mayor, in a great display of non-wisdom and a display of how to ignore facts, decided to retain the meters. The Council should be ashamed of itself for going against the will of the people.
The Express Times article references Larry Stoudt's irritation at council's "anti-business" attitude. I see it as an anti-resident attitude as he is just looking to fulfill the request of the shop owner who happens to be a long time friend of his.
Is council going to reimburse me the property value it has cost me by taking away on street parking that was available when I purchased my house?
Art, I have to disagree on the part regarding a dictatorship. In a democracy we as the people have a responsibility to know what our elected officials are doing and to participate. Long before installation a decision was made in a public meeting by Council on whether or not to install them. It was at that time that the people opposed to the meters should have made their voices heard, not after the fact.
The primary reason for starting this site was to share information on the local level that has the biggest impact on residents and is often under-reported, so incidents like this don't occur and people know what is being discussed in advance of it being voted on.
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