Let's keep parking free in Glens Falls

We aren't Lake George

The worst thing about the paid parking debate in Glens Falls is the way the mayor is throwing around the word “signage.”

“Signs” is a word that can be substituted in every case for that one with the ugly suffix.

The second worst thing is the idea that all downtown parking should become paid.

Mayor Bill Collins has talked about the expense of policing the free but time-limited spaces. Meters, meanwhile, are promoted as paying for themselves, but the cost simply gets shifted from the budget, funded by city taxpayers, to the people who park downtown, many of them city taxpayers.

City officials seem always to be a step or two ahead of reality when it comes to parking, imagining downtown is packed with motorists circling the blocks in search of an open space. Perhaps this dream is related to the hallucination that the city’s overnight parking ban makes sense.

Or maybe, they’re glancing out the windows of City Hall and drawing conclusions based on observations of the overcrowded little lot they share with the police department. 

If you drive out from the city’s center a very short distance, you can always find a place to park.

As a city resident, I’d love for our downtown to get so popular it needs paid parking, but I wouldn’t invest money (or signs) into betting that will happen.

Also, I don’t want to have to pay when Bella and I go down in the morning to spend a couple of hours on the couch at Spot Coffee, watching people pass on the sidewalk.

I’ll admit you can make a case for having paid spaces in the city’s inner core, but if this project goes ahead, it should be limited to that core — say, the first block out from the traffic circle in all five directions and the first couple of blocks on South Street.

If the most sought-after spots carry a price, it will push motorists to look on side streets like Park and Elm and Exchange, which will be good for business on those streets.

Downtown comprises a few square blocks, with a concentration of restaurants and retail shops, charming architecture and a lovely park. It is walkable.

It also has alleys that criss-cross it, offering shortcuts and providing spaces for fun experiments, like the mural on the wall of the Wood Theater building. These alleyways should be brought to life, to emphasize the magic of walking through the city.

What isn’t fun or magical is having to pay for parking, even if it’s accomplished through an app. Lake George relies on parking revenue to fund its municipal budget — a financial model Glens Falls should not try to emulate.

Parking is a service the city provides for the visitors and customers who are the lifeblood of downtown and, therefore, of the city itself. Discouraging them is the last thing we want to do.