Link: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100131/NEWS16/1310308

"With city officials trying to revive a downtown that has more parking lots than retail businesses, last week's sidewalk confrontation between a tavern owner and a parking meter enforcement officer was the last thing Toledo needed."

This is what this city back, the inability to make a decision and not talk about it, not discuss it ad naseum, not another study, the facts are on the table, and yet we have fist fights breaking out on our streets, over parking tickets.

"Time and again since Toledo installed its first nickel meters in 1936, the questions of where and when to park downtown and how much is right to pay have generated controversy."

1936? And the issue is still with us? Why do we want to generate income from parking meters, especially now, with the amount of businesses, or lack thereof, in the city center.

Seems it would be best to declare a moratorium on the meters or extend the times, but, wait for it, another committee, and another study.

"Absent from the past proposals was any talk of abolishing the roughly 1,000 on-street parking meters, which generated about $412,000 in revenue last year, almost entirely in nickels, dimes, and quarters

$412,000 versus a deficit of over $40 million, yes, please lets keep the parking the way it is, it is so helpful in driving people away from the businesses and is generating so much income, yes, please another big helping heap of business as usual.

"Clayton Johnston, executive director of the parking authority, said former Mayor Carty Finkbeiner tried to sell the garages but turned down two parking authority offers in 2008 - including the agency's final offer of $16.5 million for all three garages and a 50-year lease on the meters.

"I guess he felt he could get more from an outside concern," Mr. Johnston said.

If that same deal was offered today, the city could net roughly $11 million after paying off the garage construction debt in 2019."

Please let us stop repeating the mistakes of the past, at a time like this.

Let's think forward and move forward and stop walking around in circles, saying, oh my, what are we to do, lead for a change.