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Archive for October 16th, 2009

Shoupism in Santa Monica (and Beyond)

Via the Los Angeles Times:


Santa Monica’s discussion reflects a vexing reality — that parking has an “unbelievable power . . . to shape and distort cities,” said Ventura City Manager Rick Cole.

“It’s illegal for a car to be homeless but not for people,” he said. “As a result, we devote a huge amount of extraordinarily valuable real estate to asphalt and concrete and then we give it away.”

Ventura, which does not charge for street parking, plans to install meters in January, three years after it first committed to market-based pricing. “You have to break the initial barrier of charging for parking,” Cole said of the delay.

He speaks from experience. As mayor of Pasadena in the early 1990s, he helped broker a deal with Old Pasadena retailers that paved the way for paid parking. All the meter revenue went into area amenities, which strengthened demand, turning Old Pasadena into a municipal cash cow.

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Posted on Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 3:00 pm by: Tom Vanderbilt
2 Comments. Click here to leave a comment.
Traffic Tom Vanderbilt

How We Drive is the companion blog to Tom Vanderbilt’s New York Times bestselling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K, and in languages other than English by a number of other fine publishers worldwide.

Please send tips, news, research papers, links, photos (bad road signs, outrageous bumper stickers, spectacularly awful acts of driving or parking or anything traffic-related), or ideas for my Slate.com Transport column to me at: info@howwedrive.com.

For publicity inquiries, please contact Kate Runde at Vintage: krunde@randomhouse.com.

For editorial inquiries, please contact Zoe Pagnamenta at The Zoe Pagnamenta Agency: zoe@zpagency.com.

For speaking engagement inquiries, please contact
Jenna Meulemans at the Knopf Speaker Bureau.

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For UK publicity enquiries please contact Rosie Glaisher at Penguin.

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