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Phoenixville deprived again
ARRRRGGGGHHHH!
No, this is not Talk Like a Pirate Day.
I am frustrated that Phoenixville is having another brush with presidential politics that is ending up with, again, a candidate ALMOST coming to Phoenixville.
Okay, it was great that there was a ticket giveaway Tuesday in Phoenixville for Barack Obama’s appearance today in Malvern.
But he should have come here! He almost did!
What stopped him?
PARKING! Or, rather, reportedly, Phoenixville’s lack thereof.
Morning Star proprietor Rebekah Ray, whose shop was the site for the ticket line, says that “campaign volunteers had told her that Obama was originally scheduled to speak at Phoenixville Area High School, and believed the location was changed to Great Valley High School due to parking and capacity,” according to Brian’s story on the line for tickets.
Now, I’m not saying that PAHS should expand its parking lot just for potential, occasional town hall meetings. Maybe if the weather had been a little nicer earlier this week, organizers might have planned an open-air meeting at Reeves Park, where 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards gave a speech. Maybe not, though, since parking was difficult then, too.
Parking in Phoenixville can be an EXTREME “inconvenience.”
Phoenixville can always use more good publicity, and it’s sad that another chance of hosting a presidential candidate is gone, perhaps forever.
But the parking problem is more enduring and has broader implications than the occasional loss of bright opportunities like these.
It’s impossible to measure just how many people stay away from its eateries and entertainment venues because they fear that they’ll have trouble finding a spot. But it’s known that some people do, because they tell us so.
That means lost business, sometimes not just for a day, but permanently. That means lost potential business tax revenues, which means fewer services from the borough, or higher taxes for other residents. So the parking crunch hurts everyone.
I don’t know whether Phoenixville should establish a 50-year Parking Authority to handle the problem, or just set up a Parking Department along with other borough offices. I’ve heard arguments on both sides.
But SOMEBODY needs to start building a parking garage downtown, or close to it, and soon. For special events at the high school or Reeves Park, organizers could set up a shuttle service, which is way easier to do from one central location like a parking garage.
For Phoenixville pride, and for Phoenixville pocketbooks: Push Parking!
Posted by
--Patricia Matson
Editor, The Phoenix
No, this is not Talk Like a Pirate Day.
I am frustrated that Phoenixville is having another brush with presidential politics that is ending up with, again, a candidate ALMOST coming to Phoenixville.
Okay, it was great that there was a ticket giveaway Tuesday in Phoenixville for Barack Obama’s appearance today in Malvern.
But he should have come here! He almost did!
What stopped him?
PARKING! Or, rather, reportedly, Phoenixville’s lack thereof.
Morning Star proprietor Rebekah Ray, whose shop was the site for the ticket line, says that “campaign volunteers had told her that Obama was originally scheduled to speak at Phoenixville Area High School, and believed the location was changed to Great Valley High School due to parking and capacity,” according to Brian’s story on the line for tickets.
Now, I’m not saying that PAHS should expand its parking lot just for potential, occasional town hall meetings. Maybe if the weather had been a little nicer earlier this week, organizers might have planned an open-air meeting at Reeves Park, where 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards gave a speech. Maybe not, though, since parking was difficult then, too.
Parking in Phoenixville can be an EXTREME “inconvenience.”
Phoenixville can always use more good publicity, and it’s sad that another chance of hosting a presidential candidate is gone, perhaps forever.
But the parking problem is more enduring and has broader implications than the occasional loss of bright opportunities like these.
It’s impossible to measure just how many people stay away from its eateries and entertainment venues because they fear that they’ll have trouble finding a spot. But it’s known that some people do, because they tell us so.
That means lost business, sometimes not just for a day, but permanently. That means lost potential business tax revenues, which means fewer services from the borough, or higher taxes for other residents. So the parking crunch hurts everyone.
I don’t know whether Phoenixville should establish a 50-year Parking Authority to handle the problem, or just set up a Parking Department along with other borough offices. I’ve heard arguments on both sides.
But SOMEBODY needs to start building a parking garage downtown, or close to it, and soon. For special events at the high school or Reeves Park, organizers could set up a shuttle service, which is way easier to do from one central location like a parking garage.
For Phoenixville pride, and for Phoenixville pocketbooks: Push Parking!
Posted by
--Patricia Matson
Editor, The Phoenix
posted by The Phoenix Files at
11:39 AM
13 Comments:
Dear Ms. Matson:
When you discover what local business taxes there are in Phoenixville, please write another column and let us all know.
Gee...wouldn't ya think the editor would know there aren't any business taxes in the Borough? Is the Phoenix paying something the rest of the residents don't know about? Unbelievable!
I paid sales tax in a business just yesterday when I bought a trinket downtown.
What ever you write Ms. Matson, you never going to be right as far as a chicken is clucking.Just keep writing what you feel. Your doing a fine job.A chciken is a eangle on the internet,BUT WHEN A CHCIKEN RUNS HIS TRAP IN PERSON , HE BECOMES A REAL CHCIKEN.Sad little men love the internet.If it wasnt true it be asfunny as a ----.
To the fool that believes that the sales tax that he pays on a $4 pint or a $8 hamburger, that money goes to the state, it does not stay here in the Borough. If Patti cannot figure that out, maybe she should stick to writting something she knows something about...whatever that may be. The businesses do not pay anything other than normal property taxes, which are paid by EVERY RESIDENT in town and in most cases the businesses do not own their own buildings, hence they do not pay the property tax! So when the Parking Authority borrows money using the Boroughs taxing authority (it will be secured by property taxes), the residents not the business owners. So yes, the residents will be on the hook for the new garage. No Thank you!
My understanding of the reason for Obama's visit at GV is that a statesman politician intervened with the campaign on behalf of his grandson who attends school there.
The Great Valley campus also has a rather large auditorium and would accomodate far more people than we could.
That's the "inside" scoop.
How am I a fool? Who would write something like that? It is obvious to me that people on this blog care not to be civil. What is wrong with you people?
I just moved here and I think it is a great place. Why are you tearing it down?
People on this blog are normally positive. It is a few who want to write hurtful things and act in a manner not not generally accepted. The "chicken man" is one of them and his alter ego "the truth shall set you free" is just as bad. The represent a minority of bloggers and never have anything positve to say. Being an ex-Marine I was shocked when the "chicken man" wrote nasty stuff about our boys struggling to restore peace in Iraq. Some of the other bloggers cut their ties to him for a day or so and then went back to endorsing his actions.
So do not feel bad new guy. You are in good company. You stand with the Marines.
Hi Patricia:
Thanks for contributing this article to the ongoing discussion on the parking issues we have in town. I share your concern that we need to begin doing something about the problem.
I am confused about one point in your article though; and that is the "local business taxes" you mention. I'm not aware of any tax monies that are collected and given to the Borough from the downtown businesses.
There are some individuals who are indicating that parking is some sort of inalienable right; this just isn't so. These same folks also believe it should be "free".
The only place I'm aware of "Free Parking" is in the board game Monopoly. Even then, you only get such by a lucky roll of the dice.
A very timely article in a peer JR publication earlier this week presents data showing that the construction cost of a parking garage runs around $22,000 a space.
For a 500 space garage at that price, it's a paltry $11,000,000 just to build said facility. This cost doesn't include operations after the facility is open for business (staffing, enforcement, etc.).
Now, let's talk mathematics.
To recoup the initial construction cost (which would need to be financed using a 20-year bond), math shows that each of the 500 parking spaces would need to generate $22,000 in parking revenue over that 20-year period if the bond financing construction was interest-free.
Since, uh, that isn't going to happen, let's assume generously that we get a real bargain and the principal and interest cost is only $30,000 per space in that time period.
If the parking garage is a 24-hour facility, and we assume that all 500 spaces are constantly filled for 20 years, only $.18 an hour would need to be collected to cover the cost of initial construction.
Wow, cheap!
Oh, what's that? You mean we don't have the level of problem where said facility will be completely full 24 hours a day 7 days a week? Oh. Well that changes things a bit.
Will it be full 16 hours a day 7 days a week? Probably not. 12 hours? 8 hours? Rarely, if ever? We don't really know.
So, we must build into that initial cost factor an unpredictable level of usage, particularly if you can park on the street or in some municipal lot for free.
Let's generously assume that the parking garage averages out 100% allocation 8 hours a day over 20 years. That means $.54 an hour would need to be collected to cover the initial construction cost.
Still kinda reasonable, right?
Oh, there's operating costs? Staff to support the parking garage's operation? Well, what does that cost? $100,000 a year, maybe, on average? Factoring that in adds $2,000,000 in cost that must also be recouped, increasing the previously stated hourly average for self-sustainment from $.54 to $.66 per space.
Oh, and uh, we forgot about maintenance costs? Insurance costs? What other costs might there be?
OK OK, so we've gotten in too deep with all this silly mathematical analysis. Let's just settle on $1 an hour and be done with it, and we'll probably have a good shot at covering all the costs we incur, even if the garage isn't 100% occupied an average of 8 hours a day over 20 years.
Right? Good.
Well, kind of.
Well, maybe, but there's another problem.
Now there's the matter of getting investors to float us a 20-year $11,000,000 bond for this garage's construction. Think there's enough solid information to support investment in this opportunity? What would the investor do if we per chance didn't generate the necessary revenue to cover that year's bond payment?
Well there's an easy solution to that one.
Let's just have the Borough financially back the bond with the tax dollars of Borough residents.
"Just in case".
And then we're all set. If we don't generate enough parking revenue in a given year to make the bond payments, we'll just increase our Borough taxes a little more.
Ummm.
Oh.
Wait.
That means that residents not only would have paid for the parking garage's construction, but they'll also be paying to use it?
Well, gee. The taxpayers in the North Ward that I represent just won't go for that whole double-charging thing.
Maybe we should entertain other options.
Hey - maybe this is better left to private enterprise. Surely if there's money to be made in this adventure, someone will come in with a proposal to build it and run it for us.
... Wouldn't they?
Ex-marine? Hahahahaha! You sound strong and hairy. Are you married? And the chicken man....is he married? I need some love...
Dear Truth: When I pay my mortgage every month, a portion of my payment is placed in escrow for my yearly tax bill. Does it not make sense that property owners who are renting to local business owners are also incorporating a portion of the yearly taxes into the monthly rental fees? Same goes for apartment rentals.
Don't assume that local business owners who do not also own their buildings aren't paying taxes like the rest of us just because their names aren't on the tax bill.
First, I'd love to hear what "local business taxes" The Phoenix is paying to the Borough.
Second, what kind of journalist bases an editorial on heresay from a ticket-seller? Both Obama and Clinton's campaigns are very, very happy to take phone calls from Pennsylvania media there days -- why not find out FROM THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN why GV was chosen over Phoenixville?
Considering that people came from all over Chester and Montgomery County to see John Edwards, I find it hard to believe that parking was the issue -- I'm betting with an earlier poster that the size of the auditorium at GV clinched the deal.
Commerical business owners pay the same property tax to the Borough regardless of whether their storefronts are empty, scraping by or turning people away at the door -- if the landlord is making more money because a business in their storefront is thriving, under current code, the Borough doesn't see one extra penny.
Therefore, how is The Phoenix planning to contribute financially to the parking garage its editor is obviously willing to overlook her journalistic training to advocate for? THAT would be an editorial worth reading!
I thought that the man who said he said he paid taxes downtown made a good point. It is unfortunate that people are difficult to get along with on this blog. Why I remember back in ought one when no one went to the downtown and we did not have this problem. I think it is a good problem to have. Most of these storeowners are on triple net so they do pay taxes. That tax base needs to be nurtured or you will end up as a ghost town again. Please, many of you have an anal/cranial inversion complex.
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