Buffeted by complaints from merchants

Buffeted by complaints from merchants who claim last month's installment of parking meters is driving them out of business, a majority of city commissioners now say they are poised to literally bag the controversial meters.

"It may well have been a giant waste of our money," Sarasota Vice Mayor Terry Turner said of the meters, which were sold to taxpayers as a way to avoid a tax increase to cover a shortfall in the parking enforcement budget.
"We didn't have a parking problem," he added. "I never had trouble finding parking downtown."

Commissioners say they are willing to look at several options to lessen the sting of paid parking, including lowering the $1 per hour rate or decommissioning meters on low-traffic side streets.

But whether the meters are axed — or if they are only scaled back to Main Street, for instance — depends on if city staff can prove paid parking is not hurting fragile businesses still weathering the Great Recession's blows.

That is next to impossible, officials say.
"It's difficult to make a judgment in such a short period," said City Manager Bob Bartolotta, whom the commission charged with presenting data at the next City Commission meeting on July 5.

"I think we need better data to make good decisions," Bartolotta said, adding it will take at least six months to do that. "We've invested a tremendous amount of money and resources."