Notice of Town Hall Meeting Regarding Proposed Downtown Parking Meter Increase~1/22/14 @ 5:30 PM, Market Square

Mean Mister Brownsville

From the editor: You will notice there is no inclusion of a "Public Comment" section in the agenda shown below for the 1/22/14 Town Hall style City Commission meeting. Surely, this is an oversight, since it's not actually a town hall meeting without citizen participation.

This would be a good opportunity to relax the 3-minute limit on public comment, perhaps allowing 5 minutes for commenters to express their views.  A limit of 5 commenters, as is normally the case for commission meetings, would not really be appropriate for this meeting.  Come on, guys.  There's nothing else on the agenda and the Mayor says he will be "out of town" for this.  This is a perfect opportunity for actual, inclusive democracy, something not typically practiced by the mayor and city commission, even if raising parking meter rates is a foregone conclusion.

Two important, surprising issues have already surfaced as this issue gets some play.  Two young city planners have already let the cat out of the bag that the city plans to use the increased revenue from tripling meter rates to buy new, credit card accessible meters.  Knowing how the city operates, they likely have a vendor in mind for these new meters.  

Also, we learned that the Planning Department plans to ask for a grant that, if received would create a bike trail on the terminal side of Adams Street, eliminating 50 parking spaces from 10th Street to International Boulevard.  And, you thought the city needed parking spaces downtown!