Is it really necessary to make life more difficult for the meager amount of Hollister residents that are fortunate enough to have jobs downtown? The on-again off-again two hour parking rule and the $38.00 citations that go along with it may finally be adding a little money to our cities empty coffers but at whose cost? In these lousy economic times there is usually plenty of parking available downtown. The people that that are truly affected by the two-hour parking rule, and the ones paying most of the fees, are the people who work downtown.
The council whose bone-head idea it was to build a three million dollar parking garage and many council members since would suggest that employees should use it and their problems would be solved. I don’t know of a woman in Hollister that feels comfortable parking in the deserted and spooky garage and then walking to their jobs which may be as far as six blocks away. Most of them opt to move their cars every two hours and pray that they don’t get busy and forget or miss the move by three minutes and receive a citation.
Two-hour parking leads to issues that affect many downtown businesses. When there is a line at the bank and only one teller window open because two bank employees had to move their cars it’s a pain. Shops with only one employee have to close up so that they can move their cars. Spending extra time in the barber or beauticians chair waiting for them to move their car is inconvenient. God forbid a person is getting a weave, color treatment or a perm which could easily take more than two hours. Foil wraps and perm rods make people look downright scary and many would rather suffer a $38 citation than be seen outside looking like they just dropped in from Mars.
If you’re one of the unfortunate people that has business at the San Benito County Courthouse, two hours will probably not suffice. I found myself offering to move my $275 an hour attorney’s car for fear of adding any more fees to my bill. He was silly enough to say, “This shouldn’t take that long.”
I believe that many Hollister residents would be interested to know just how much revenue is generated by the two-hour parking rule. I would presume that the only reason for such a policy is to generate funds for the city but when those funds come from an already struggling citizenry it seems ludicrous to me.
I challenge council members to do some research, analyze the policy and let the public know if it truly benefits Hollister residents. I’ve lived in Hollister for 22 years and I’ve seen way too much waste; I remember when it cost the city $3.00 for every citation issued. How about doing something for our city that really generates revenue? Bring back our motorcycle rally for instance. I couldn’t resist a shameless plug.
Charisse Tyson is owner of Johnny’s Bar & Grill.
