How Much Would You Pay for Parking in Clarendon?

The Arlington Sun Gazette's Scott McCaffrey recently took aim at a proposal to charge for parking after 6pm and on weekends in the Arlington County garage in Clarendon at 3033 Wilson Blvd (entrance on Highland Street):

THUMBS DOWN: To one of the dumber proposals being considered by county officials to help solve their budget shortfall.

Board members this weekend will be asked to advertise for public hearing a proposal to start charging residents $3 to park on nights and weekends at the Department of Human Services garage on Wilson Boulevard. Parking is now free, and keeping it that way will encourage patronage of Clarendon venues as well as keep vehicles off neighborhood streets.

This proposal is a nickel-and-dime approach to governance that is beneath Arlington’s leaders to propose, let alone enact. County Board members can make quick work of this wrongheaded proposal by simply refusing to advertise it for a hearing.

There are certainly drawbacks to the proposal. But considering these fees would be on the low end of current parking fees in Clarendon, Scott's rhetoric is a little over the top. Would any husband really turn to his wife and say, "Honey, I was going to take you to Restaurant 3 for our anniversary tonight, but it's $3 for parking now, so we're having Hungry Man TV dinners instead. Hope you like salisbury steak."

The current subsidized free parking also incentivizes driving over Metro, biking or walking. Why make the effort and pay at least $1.35 to Metro to Clarendon when parking's plentiful and free?

What do you think? Would a $3 fee be a reasonable considering the county's $35 million budget gap? Or is it a "nickel-and-dime approach," as Scott suggests, and the deficit could be better made up through general tax increases?

I Think I'll Park Riiiiiiight ...

Here:

Yes, the middle of the sidewalk on Wilson Boulevard will do just fine.

Parking Meter Roulette

Different parking meters in different areas have different rules. But in looking for parking in Clarendon recently, I've noticed how wildly different parking rules can be, not just from one block to another, but from one space to the next.

On Clarendon Day I was trying to find a spot that I could stay in for the two-hour shift I was working at the CRM booth. I ended up pulling into three different spots -- all with different rules. The most egregious spread came on the meters to the right -- one a 1-hour meter in effect from Monday-Saturday, the other a 12-hour meter in effect from Monday-Friday. Driving around in traffic, of all that was impossible to know until you pulled into the spot.

The next week I hit the Clarendon post office to get my first-ever passport. The meter on the left is 8am-6pm while the meter on the right is 8am-5pm.

Why is The Green Miles so sensitive to these subjects? Because he got nailed with a parking ticket in Rosslyn a couple of years back at a spot where the parking meters had been changed but the parking street signs hadn't. The signs still said "metered parking Mon-Fri" but on the meters the "Fri" had been covered with a "Sat" sticker. Weak.

So how can you know what you're getting into before pulling in? While the Arlington County Parking Meter Guide has plenty of information, it doesn't make things much simpler. It's six printed pages long. You could try to memorize the parking meter color codes, but there are five of those.

I know the parking planners are just trying to keep cars turning over fast in high traffic areas while letting workers and residents park longer in less-busy spots. But it can certainly make parking a pain.