Sullivan’s Island, S.C., like a lot of cities and towns, is facing a significant revenue shortfall because of COVID-19. But when the town council proposed instituting paid parking, the beach town’s business owners revolted, saying they’d lose customers if people had to pay to park.
“This is not a way to try to keep people from coming. We want to support our businesses, we want them to continue to be popular with the people in the Charleston area,” Mayor Patrick O’Neil told local channel 5 news. “But if we need to have decent streets for people to park on for those businesses, we need to be able to provide them with fire and rescue and police coverage while they are here. We need to get the money from somewhere.”
Business owners banded together to install a “No Paid Parking” banner and asked their customers to voice displeasure to the town council, which plans to meet this week to talk about the proposal.
Read the whole story here. And let us know in the comments: What advice would you give both the town council and business owners in this situation?
The City of Greenville, S.C., has 11 garages, four surface lots, and 800 on-street parking spaces, totaling close to 9,000 spaces. Many of the parking facilities are tied to development projects–hotels, office complexes, event venues, residences, restaurants, and retail. When