Thomas MacMillan Photo
Broadway Plaza parking.
Two months after Mayor John DeStefano handed over a Broadway parking lot to Yale, taxpayers got “one-two punch” from a 100 percent rise in parking fees, mayoral challenger Jeffrey Kerekes claimed.
Kerekes, one of three Democrats challenging Mayor John DeStefano in a Sept. 13 primary, made that claim in a press release on Aug. 25. That’s one day after Yale changed the parking fees at its new lot on Broadway.
Yale took over the lot this summer, after the city OK’d a deal to lease the 1.2‑acre Broadway parking lot to Yale for 97 years. The city took in $3 million up front from the university and will receive $1 a year for the remaining 96 years. The deal helped plug a gap in the city’s budget for the fiscal year that ended June 30.
At the time, the deal was criticized as short-sighted, since the parking lot fees are a source of income. The administration said it was not an optimal choice, but necessary in the difficult fiscal circumstances.
In his Aug. 25 press release, Kerekes decried the choice to lease the lot and said the bad decision means taxpayers suffer twice.
“This is a prime example of what John DeStefano does. He sells a city owned asset for less than its real value because he is short on cash to balance the city budget at the end of the year. Taxpayers take a punch for that and then we get our clock cleaned again when the new owner doubles the rate,” said Kerekes, in the release.
We fed that statement into the Independent’s Truth-O-Meter, along with the facts of the matter.
Doubled Rates?
During a June aldermanic hearing on the lease of the Broadway lot, Lauren Zucker, Yale’s head of New Haven affairs, said the university had no plans to raise parking rates.
A visit to the lot last week showed some rates have gone up, but only for those who park over four hours.
A sign that showed the old rates at 75 cents per half-hour, with a maximum daily rate of $18, had been whited out.
A new laminated notice was posted to the ticket machine at the lot’s entrance.
It reads: “Effective Wednesday August 24, 2011. Transient rate for stays longer than four hours increases to $35.00 (flat rate).”
Contacted by e‑mail, Yale property manager Abigail Rider clarified that parking rates for “short-term parkers” remain unchanged.
“The only rate that has been increased is the rate for those who stay in the lot more than 4 hours,” Rider wrote.
Rider characterized the rate hike as a policy change.
“We are not changing the rate so much as prohibiting long-term parking — but we have to put a number on it in case someone decides they want to ignore the prohibition,” she wrote.
“We are asking long-term parkers (primarily Yale employees, other office workers, and construction workers) to find spaces in parking garages or lots that are intended specifically to provide all-day parking for those who work here in New Haven,” Rider said. The increased long-term rate is part of an effort to increase turnover in the lot, so it can better serve the stores on Broadway, she said.
“The Broadway Center Lot is now dedicated to supporting retail on Broadway,” Rider said. “With the opening of the fabulous new tenant at 65 Broadway this fall, we anticipate very high daily numbers of shoppers from a 40-mile radius around New Haven.”
The Meter Says…
Fed these details, the Truth-O-Meter returned a reading of “True-ish.”
The basic premise of Kerekes’ claim is true. One rate did nearly double, from 18 to 35 dollars for stays exceeding four hours.
But it is only one rate, not all rates. Short-term shoppers picking up a book at the Yale Bookstore or a Gant shirt will be unaffected by the hike.
Previous Truth-O-Meter installments:
• Bull’s‑Eyes, Errant Arrows In Debate Attacks
• 1 Picture, 2 Interpretations
$35.00 may seem a little steep for a parking lot, but it isn't actually that much more than what a contractor or visitor to Yale might pay to park all day in a downtown garage. Hopefully the new policies will encourage more visitors to come to Downtown New Haven.
Now the city just needs to dramatically raise rates for metered spaces, so that spaces free up and New Haven is perceived as an easier place to park.
If there are excess spaces, a few of them should be turned back into pedestrian plaza areas, similar to what New Haven did a couple decades ago when it reconstructed Chapel Street, and more recently on Temple Street. Decent space for walking and gathering downtown would create more businesses and jobs than another parking space. To compensate, there are many roadways with extra lane width (e.g., George Street) that could be converted into hundreds of new on-street parking spaces.
For those who want to save money when they drive downtown, we have excellent bus lines, plus tens of thousands of totally free parking spaces on surface streets just a block or two outside of Downtown.