NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Parking meters and parking tickets…
For those of you who think paying $1.50/hour is ridiculous, come January, you’re going to have to shell out double that amount to park in the CBD and French Quarter. We’re talking $3.00/hour.
“It’s not commensurate with what service industry people are paying or making, it’s not commensurate with what musicians wages are, so it’s going to impact people that provide music, culture, food,” says Chris Lane, with the New Orleans Citizens for Fair Parking group.
“This is a transitional industry for people trying to make it to that next level and I don’t know anybody who can afford $5,000 per year just knocked off the top,” says Mark Schettler with the New Orleans chapter of the U.S. Bartenders Guild.
But Bar Tonique’s manager Mark Schettler says if mayor Mitch Landrieu’s proposal passes, he’ll end up spending more than seven thousand dollars a year on parking.
That’s why the group: New Orleans Citizens for Fair Parking was created. To stop Landrieu’s proposal by starting a petition.
Organizers and supporters are meeting at Bar Tonique Wednesday to sign petitions.
The hope is that mayor Landrieu will open the discussion and consider other alternatives to boosting the city’s budget.
Ideas include higher taxes for film companies and private parking lots, another idea: devising a parking permit for restaurant employees, paid for by the restaurant owners.
But if all else fails, three dollars an hour, it is.
“I cannot afford to work here if that’s what I have to do,” says Schettler.
“We’d like Mayor Landrieu and the city council to at least meet with our coalition,” says Lane.