New laws often have unintended consequences, and those impacts are almost always negative.
In San Diego, predatory developers and their investors gamed the “Bonus ADU” program by cramming a dozen (or more) apartments on single-family lots, often in high-fire zones, with no off-street parking and no infrastructure improvements. Despite promises of reduced rents, the program has failed to produce a single unit of very-low or low-income housing.
In Pacific Beach, a proposed 23-story residential tower is the unwelcome result of state legislation intended to increase the supply of low-income rental units. But a majority of the 213 units would be hotel-type rentals. Only five units would be set aside for very-low-income tenants.
The latest and arguably most egregious example of unintended negative consequences is “surge pricing” at hundreds of downtown parking meters for Padres’ games and so-called “special events.”
The city could try to balance its budget by shrinking its workforce — offering buy-outs to upper- and middle-managers and, if necessary, laying off employees. Instead, it is increasing user fees. The cost of metered parking already doubled this year to $2.50 an hour. Starting September 1, sports fans and music lovers have a choice: pay $10 an hour for metered parking, use a public lot, or take a bus, trolley or ride-share.
Those of us fortunate enough to afford a $300 family night at Petco or a $150 concert ticket can probably absorb the additional $60 added for “surge” parking. But thousands of low-paid hospitality workers and night shift employees don’t have that option.
Worse, the city’s new “Special Event Parking Zone” is so big and extends so far from Petco Park that it will cause a huge financial hardship for countless San Diegans who live and work downtown.
The new $10 an hour “surge pricing” includes metered parking all the way north to Broadway, eight blocks from the stadium. The zone goes west to State Street, east to Interstate 5, and south to Newton Avenue.
Until now, downtown workers with late-shift jobs could pay five dollars for two hours of late afternoon/early evening parking and keep their cars there when meters expired at 6 p.m.
Now, they’ll pay more than half their hourly wage to feed those $10-hour-meters.
Critics might tell them to use a parking lot, take public transportation, or ride-share to and from work.
But public lots charge $30 or more on weekend nights downtown. Ride share to and from work would cost even more for most workers. And public transit doesn’t fit your schedule when you finish work at 2 am.
Many downtown residents will face similar hardships. Wealthy condo owners and renters have off-street parking spots (some enjoy 24-hour valet parking). But those who pay less for rent or live in buildings outside the downtown core often have no off-street parking.
East Village resident Autumn Atherton told Fox 5/KUSI that surge pricing could break her budget. She lives in a building with no assigned or underground parking and relies entirely on street parking. “I’m barely making it,” she said. “(And) that’s an extra 40 bucks a day I’m going to have to pay to park,” she said.
Small business owners also predicted significant hardship from the 400% increase in meter parking on “Special Event days.”
“Nobody’s going to pay $10 [at a meter] just to buy a $30 bag of dog food,” one business owner told Fox 5/KUSI. “If you drive around, there are already a bunch of empty retail spaces. Now there’ll just be one more.”
It’s highly unlikely the city can find a solution to this avoidable inequity. Even if our mayor and council were to acknowledge they were blinded by the pursuit of revenue and failed to predict the consequences, they have less than two weeks before the new rates take effect to make changes.
And don’t count on Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera to discuss this urgent cost-of-living problem at the Sept. 25 meeting of his “Select Committee on Addressing Cost of Living.”
Paul Krueger is a retired journalist and founding member of Neighbors for a Better San Diego.
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