Exceptions are Mid-City hospital area and around City Hall
The city will continue requiring motorists to feed parking meters on Saturdays in many, though not all, of the commercial areas where Saturday enforcement began early this year, Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced Wednesday.
Before taking office, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said he would consider canceling the Saturday hours. But on Wednesday, he said that after an extensive review, he has decided to continue Saturday enforcement in 'high-volume commercial zones where metered parking ensures vehicle circulation and customer access to convenient short-term parking.'Saturday enforcement will continue, for example, in the French Quarter and most of the Central Business District and along Magazine Street because it helps to ensure vehicle turnover and thus make more on-street parking spaces available, Landrieu said.
The mayor also announced a program to train parking enforcement officers to provide better service and be more helpful to motorists.
Since March 27, about five weeks before former Mayor Ray Nagin left office, the city has required motorists to observe parking meter hours on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., the same hours as on weekdays.
Before taking office in May, Landrieu said he thought charging for meters on Saturdays discouraged commerce in neighborhoods where parking is at a premium, and he said he would consider canceling the expanded hours.
However, he said Wednesday that after an extensive review, he has decided to continue Saturday enforcement in "high-volume commercial zones where metered parking ensures vehicle circulation and customer access to convenient short-term parking."
Those areas include Magazine Street, Oak Street, Riverbend, the French Quarter, the Warehouse District and the CBD on the river side of Loyola Avenue.
Effective immediately, all other parking areas in the city will be free on Saturday. Those include the Mid-City hospital zone area on the lake side of Claiborne Avenue and the zone around City Hall on the lake side of Loyola Avenue.
In reviewing the parking meter policy, a news release said, the administration "researched best practices and consulted with members from the small business community, including representatives from the Magazine Street Merchants Association, French Quarter Business Women's Network, French Market Corp., Algiers Economic Development Foundation, Bourbon Business Association and Downtown Development District."
The review concluded that enforcing parking meter hours "can be a valuable tool in shopping districts that receive heavy traffic on Saturdays because it ensures adequate parking availability for customers, since parking spots constantly turn over when spaces are metered."
Landrieu said he instructed his staff to review the city's parking metering policies "to ensure that they align with our goals of promoting adequate parking availability for businesses and their customers, and were not being used solely for generating revenues."
In areas where the review team decided that metered parking on Saturdays was "unnecessary and an inconvenience," free parking is being reinstated on Saturdays, he said.
Chief Administrative Officer Andy Kopplin said that in meetings with small business leaders, "we heard over and over that their primary concern was with the poor customer service from our parking enforcement officers."
Although many of them do their jobs well, he said, "we send the exact wrong message" when residents or tourists "encounter a parking enforcement officer waiting for the meter to expire with a ticket already written."
As a result, the mayor's office said, he has directed the Department of Public Works to take several steps, including:
- Requiring training for all parking enforcement officers by customer service professionals beginning this fall.
- Beginning a "parking ambassador" program in which specialized parking enforcement officers will be charged with providing directions and other information to residents and visitors.
- Producing a "Park Smart" brochure listing parking rules, violations and directions to parking garages.
- Expanding a pay-by-phone program, currently in use on a pilot basis along Magazine Street and in the Riverbend area, that lets motorists pay for street parking spaces by cellular phone.
Bruce Eggler can be reached at beggler@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3320.