Make Parking Free on Sundays

With regard to tourism in Santa Barbara, I have always said “Make it desirable for the people that live here all year, and the tourists will come.” The city is always looking at how to increase tourism and how to be “tourist-friendly,” but in the end they are really looking to get every last tourist dollar, whenever they can. In this time of austerity, let me suggest that they give the Parking Enforcement personnel (i.e. meter maids) the day off on Sunday, thereby saving precious enforcement dollars and hours to be used during the rest of the week. At the same time, advertise that Santa Barbara wants your visits and allows FREE on-street parking on Sundays. This probably amounts to some losses for the city from parking tickets, but will give a “warm-fuzzy” to the weekend visitors as well as the residents that might like to shop downtown on Sundays.

I recently took a trip to Savannah and they have adopted this practice to give a so called “shot in the arm” to businesses on Sundays. Maybe the city could also allow free parking on the wharf on Sundays—where the parking is mostly for tourists.—