![little man parking little man parking](https://s3-media0.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/FSkkkX7rTvYhtI6HY0ayVw/l.jpg)
Wozniak said his goal last week had been to share a range of ideas with council members so they could come up with a path forward. She urged city staff and colleagues to look at processes underway to find more money for marina trash collection and paving to determine whether the waterfront might benefit in the short term: “They’re things we should not let go by while we have a chance.” “We can’t just rob Peter to pay Paul,” said Councilmember Kate Harrison. Council members said it didn’t seem fair that the city takes a huge chunk of the marina’s income while also requiring it to cover substantial infrastructure projects from its own coffers.
![little man parking little man parking](https://livemap-tiles1.waze.com/tiles/17/38584/49268.png)
There is, however, broad agreement that the current fiscal arrangement at the Berkeley Marina needs a fix. The Parks and Waterfront Commission had proposed the concept, but council members and city staff had largely nixed it at a budget meeting in September. 16 meeting, the original proposal on the table that night - to shift several million dollars each year in hotel taxes from the General Fund to the Marina Fund - had been deemed to be a non-starter. In their proposal, officials noted that the city has made recent investments of $26 million with an eye toward fixing up the waterfront and making it more financially viable in the long run.Įven before the Nov. The marina’s fiscal challenges prompted council members recently to push the state for a $15 million earmark for Berkeley in the upcoming fiscal year. City officials said they want to make changes to build that reserve back up. The Marina Fund has been estimated to have unfunded infrastructure needs totalling $100 million and its reserves are essentially empty. “We’re losing revenue that could go into helping balance the Marina Fund,” he said.Īnd there is little time to waste. And that’s not the only drawback, he added. That creates a situation that’s at odds with the city’s climate goals to reduce greenhouse gases.
LITTLE MAN PARKING FREE
Mayor Jesse Arreguín said providing so much free parking creates disincentives for people to bike or take public transit to the marina. “It’s not the panacea I was hoping it was at our last meeting.” “The cost of enforcement is not small - because it’s staff, and staff has substantial labor costs,” Kesarwani said. Last week’s discussion was hypothetical.Ĭouncilmember Rashi Kesarwani, whose district includes a portion of the waterfront, said she very much agreed in concept with charging for parking she recently proposed adding parking enforcement in Berkeley on Sundays, which are currently free, or expanding enforcement hours on other days.īut she told her colleagues that she later learned the situation was somewhat more complex than she first imagined. Numerous council members seemed to embrace the paid parking concept, although it will certainly bear much more discussion and public process before any changes take place. He suggested that short-term parking might be free, while long-term parking might involve a fee: “I know people don’t like to charge for parking, but I want to raise the issue,” he said. Wozniak said the city could charge $1 a day and make up to $600,000 a year, or charge $2 a day and make the same amount with 50% occupancy. “The harbor area is basically like a mall surrounded by parking spots,” said Parks Commission Chair, and former council member, Gordon Wozniak.
![little man parking little man parking](https://d13esfgglb25od.cloudfront.net/lot_img/204506/77d3ffc957e44e488a64569eafb84d59.jpg)
The marina has 1,700 public parking spots. Hahn said she’d like the city to convert some of the parking to green spaces, while other officials said they would be open to putting solar panels on the waterfront’s sprawling parking lots. “I think the parking is one of the big negatives in the whole marina experience.” We should charge the kind of amounts that we charge in other places in Berkeley,” said Councilmember Sophie Hahn. “That seems like kind of a no-brainer to me. While many of these concepts are still early in the planning stages, paid parking - which may be a controversial change for many park users - seemed to garner broad support from the dais. Paid parking, solar and wind power, increasing the parks tax and reconfiguring the harbor for larger boats were among a raft of ideas discussed Nov. Credit: Pete Rososīerkeley officials say the city must find new ways to boost revenue at the Berkeley Marina, which has struggled in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and an ongoing structural deficit. A swimmer looks out on the water from the beach at the Berkeley Marina, Nov.