Rumors of Plan to Eliminate Downtown Parking Spaces for Bike Trail Not As Unfounded as Planner Ramiro Gonzalez Suggests

Town Hall Meeting at Market Square

At the Town Hall Meeting at the Market Square Conference Room 1/22/14 concerning the proposed tripling of parking meter fees downtown, City Planner Ramiro Gonzalez tried to sell the idea of increased fees on the theory that higher fees would "turn over" the parking spaces to additional shoppers downtown, thus increasing sales.  Gonzalez suggested that a considerable part of the problem came from the employees of downtown businesses who simply "pumped quarters" into the meters all day long.

The City Planner has expressed in private conversations the plan to use the expected increased revenue from higher parking meter rates to create a revenue stream for "downtown revitalization."  When pressed about how such money would be spent, Gonzalez said the first order of business would be to purchase new, credit card accessible parking meters.   Much of the planner's theory comes from a book, "The High Cost of Free Parking," that he keeps on his desk.  

Planned New Parking Meters

18 of 20 downtown property owners and citizens who spoke at the Town Hall Meeting did not agree with Gonzalez that raising meter rates was a good idea. Some said it would further stifle business in an already, incredibly slow economy.  Others had simpler, more practical suggestions, not involving higher parking fees for downtown shoppers.

In actuality, a survey of downtown streets during the busiest weekday for shoppers revealed parking congestion on only two streets, Elizabeth and Washington.  Two metered streets,  St. Charles and Jefferson, were empty, while parking on Adams Street was sparse.  

Empty Jefferson Street at Noon on Monday

Downtown business owners were also concerned about a rumor that parking spaces would be removed on Adams Street to make space for a bike lane through town.  Deleting parking spaces for a bike lane seemed to contradict the claim that City Planning was motivated by alleviating parking congestion downtown.  

"How can you claim to be concerned about downtown parking congestion in one breath and then have a plan to do away with as many as 50 parking spaces downtown?" stated one downtown property owner.

City Planner Ramiro Gonzalez

We questioned City Planner Ramiro Gonzalez about the rumor that as many as 50 parking spaces would be removed downtown by a proposed bike lane.  Gonzalez said this fear of downtown property owners was unfounded.  We reported our conversation with Gonzalez 1/30/14:
Our conversation this morning with Mr. Gonzalez should alleviate some of the fears of downtown property owners with respect to losing the spaces on Adams Street as Gonzalez told us, when asked about putting a bike trail along Adams: "I don't know where that came from. We're in the process of deciding where to make the connection, but it will not be along Adams Street." Gonzalez, after telling us that a Transportation Enhancement grant for $786,000 had been received to create the bike trail, added that no metered parking spaces would be removed for it. The project he said would connect the Battlefield Hike and Bike Trail, that runs from Palo Alto Battlefield to Linear Park, with Fort Brown.

That statement by the City Planner contradicted what we had learned from Brownsville Metro Advisory Board Chairman Daniel Lenz and Brownsville Metro Assistant Director Andrew Munoz. Munoz recalled a citywide planning meeting during which Adams, Jefferson, Harrison and E. 11th had been mentioned as a possible route for a bike trail connecting the Battlefield Hike & Bike Trail with historic Fort Brown.  He said the meeting was attended by several city departments including Planning, Public Works, Health and Traffic, as well as TxDot and Brownsville Metro.  So, who was telling the truth?

After attempting to get a copy of the original application for the Transportation Enhancement application directly from Planner Gonzalez, we submitted a Public Information Request Tuesday morning(2/4/14).  We received the document that very afternoon via City Secretary Estela Von Hatten.  

We have not taken the time to totally dissect the 36 page document, but the schematic downtown map submitted shows the trail connecting at Linear Park with the Battlefield Hike & Bike Trail, extending up Harrison Street, then south on E. 11th Street, then east again on Adams Street.  So, the fears that parking meters would be removed on Adams Street for a bike trail were not unfounded.  City Planner Ramiro Gonzalez' words: "I don't know where they get that. That's not happening." were simply disinformation, untrue.  

Now, it's entirely possibly that, after some downtown owners expressed concern about parking meters being removed for a bike trail through downtown, that City Planning is looking at alternate routes, but the diagram to the left submitted in the grant application CLEARLY shows the trail going through Adams Street as downtown property owners feared.  

Actually, it's worse than they feared as Adams is closed to one lane for auto and truck traffic, but still is just one-way as a bicycle lane.  In the city's proposed plan, Jefferson Street is also used as a bike lane, eliminating twice as many parking meters as feared.  

City Planning, as they would say in Arkansas, is talking out of both sides of their collective mouth.  On one hand, they say downtown Brownsville has a parking congestion problem that can be solved by tripling parking meter rates, then add to the problem by proposing to eliminate meters on two downtown streets, Adams and Jefferson, for a bike trail.  

Of course, now Planner Ramiro Gonzalez says "That's not happening." We will see.

(to be continued)