Parking in downtown San Jose is about to get more expensive, though not quite as pricey as city leaders originally proposed.<\/p>\n
The City Council voted Tuesday night to approve higher rates at several municipal garages while putting a controversial plan to raise street parking rates on hold.<\/p>\n
The garage behind San Pedro Square is among those where drivers will soon pay more. Under the new plan, motorists will still get their first 90 minutes free, but the hourly rate after that will increase by $1. In addition, special event parking rates will rise by $5.<\/p>\n
The decision follows more than two hours of public comment and debate as downtown businesses continue working to bring customers back.<\/p>\n
“I just don\u2019t see why I should continue to invest in the city that won\u2019t invest in me,” said Cache Bouren, a local bar owner who opposed the broader rate hikes.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Anthony Tordillos of District 3, who represents downtown, acknowledged the delicate balance facing local merchants.<\/p>\n
“I think the big concerns are still about the fact that downtown is still in recovery post-pandemic,” Tordillos said.<\/p>\n
The council ultimately rejected two other major proposals: raising street meter rates from their current levels and extending meter enforcement until 9 p.m. <\/p>\n
However, those proposals could return as the city looks for ways to pay for parking garage maintenance and equipment upgrades.<\/p>\n
“Staff is going to do more analysis to figure out what are the revenue needs to maintain our garages, do equipment upgrades for things like our meters\u2014we need to see how we replenish those funds and make it sustainable,” Tordillos explained.<\/p>\n
For some residents, the shifting costs are already altering how they visit the city core.<\/p>\n
“I feel like either way, you’re going to have to pay. There’s no more free parking. You get lucky if you get free parking,” said Ana, a San Jose resident. “It’s always, ‘I have to pay, so let’s just Uber.’ At the end of the day, it’s cheaper.”<\/p>\n
The council also voted to expand a discounted parking program for eligible downtown employees.<\/p>\n
As for the street meter increases, they are off the table for now, but city staff will continue studying how to cover the cost of maintaining San Jose’s parking system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parking in downtown San Jose is about to get more expensive, though not quite as pricey as city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-480231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}