Pressure continues to build on the city surrounding Balboa Park parking fees, as advocates and residents who oppose the fees show no signs of letting up.
A public opinion poll released Wednesday shows overwhelming opposition among city residents. Neighborhood groups are staging a Saturday rally to protest the fees. And a council committee will consider a proposal to backtrack on the fees – at least for one day a week.
Council members have taken to social media with calls to suspend the fees, or have doubled down on their position to oppose the plan in the first place. Mayors from neighboring cities have joined the call to repeal the fees. Park institutions say attendance has fallen sharply.
Still, Mayor Todd Gloria is standing by a set of fees he embraced, and the city council approved, last year as part of the city’s response to a budget shortfall.
The SurveyUSA poll, commissioned by the San Diego Union Tribune and ABC 10 News, shows the backlash isn’t confined to a loud and angry minority.
Rather, the opposition cuts across age, race, income and political ideology, with 80% of San Diegans polled saying parking should be free at Balboa Park or that the city’s rates are too high.
Support for the idea of returning to free parking ranged highest for an older demographic, those between the ages of 50 and 64; 73% of them would like to see the parking fees end. That falls slightly, to 69% for those whose highest education is a high school degree.
On the other hand, those who hold a four-year college degree and parents, are more divided, with 49% believing that parking should be free.
Across the demographic categories, no more than 26% of respondents agreed with the statement that the new Balboa Park fees are “reasonable.” Groups that hit the peak 26% are aged 65 and up, registered Republicans or those with a four-year degree.
Out of the 500 residents polled, 69% of people say these fees will make them visit the park less.
The Balboa Park Cultural Partnership said Wednesday that this is already happening.
In an open letter to the mayor and city council, the partnership’s president, Jessica York Hansen, said there has been a measurable decline in general admission rates inside museums. These decreases have been reported at between 20% and 57% on some days.
According to different museums around the park, from the Comic-Con Museum to the Natural History Museum, the dip in attendance is noticeable, especially during the Free Tuesdays program in which the venues offer free admission on a rotating schedule.
Various stakeholders, from mayors of San Diego County cities to those who manage museums within the park, have made their displeasure known over the past couple weeks.
Another event, set for Saturday, is being hosted San Diego United Communities, which typically opposes large development projects. In anticipation of the rally the group has teased an update on the launch of its “Repeal the Fees” campaign, aided by a former mayor of Coronado, Richard Bailey.
When Times of San Diego spoke with Bailey in December, he said the website Repeal the Fees sought to find out if there was enough interest to collect signatures for a ballot initiative challenging charging for parking at Balboa Park.
“I strongly suspect that if these measures were to qualify, they would pass,” Bailey said regarding the amount of public interest he received on his proposals to repeal paid parking and trash fees.
Similarly, the Balboa Park Cultural District has created a website in an effort to repeal Balboa’s fees. Instead of assessing interest for a ballot measure, it has a form where residents can send messages to their council member.
In addition, on Wednesday, the city council’s Rules Committee will hear a proposal from Shane Harris, a local activist who has dubbed himself “San Diego’s Public Advocate,” to make parking free on Sundays.
The committee, made up of Council President Joe LaCava and members Vivian Moreno, Sean Elo-Rivera, Raul Campillo and Kent Lee, will decide whether the item should head to the ballot for residents to vote on or if they will back an ordinance that would be brought to the whole council for a vote.
The Mayor’s Office has previously said the fees were adopted, in part, to address a $318 million deficit. Gloria said in the State of the City address that the budget gap has shrunk by $270 million in the last year.
Earlier this month, in a Jan. 7 response to Lee’s and Elo-Rivera’s memo recommending that the city suspend paid parking until San Diegans are properly informed, Gloria said any delays would have “serious fiscal consequences” and could cause confusion among park goers.
Bolstering his case, he said that in the first two days of implementation, the city collected over $23,000 in parking revenue from the Balboa Park lot meters.
One cost the city already has incurred – vandalism of the new parking kiosk, where fees are collected.
According to San Diego police Officer Anthony Carrasco, between Dec. 1 and Jan. 1, 10 kiosks were vandalized in various ways. A few of them were coated in a foam material that rendered the machines inoperable, some were spray painted. One even had feces on the screen — which police said they swabbed for DNA testing.
The cost to repair the kiosks vandalized in the past two months, Carrasco said, has totaled $16,000.
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