Sarasota HeraldTribune

Regarding the article exploring the use of more parking meters to help the parking situation in downtown Sarasota:

Thank God urban planner Robert Gibbs had a solution.

I'm a downtown business owner, and downtown parking is our bread and butter. My business is in Marina Tower on Gulf Stream and Cocoanut avenues. Cocoanut has three-hour parking. Cocoanut Avenue is not a shopping district, and the three-hour parking is absurd. What happens is that downtown employees park there from 9 a.m. to noon, then pick up their cars for lunch and come back at 1 p.m. for another three hours of parking. Then at 4 o'clock they move one more time; at that late hour, parking is somewhat easier. And there goes the day.

Our customers go around and around for a space, waiting for somebody to pull out. Everybody knows that street parking is meant for shoppers, and not employees. Therefore comes the necessity of meters. I'm not going further with it,

because Mr. Gibbs stated it very reasonably. People who need full- day parking could buy permits and leave the meters for short-term parking.

Another suggestion is to use parking permits at the just-built garage at Whole Foods Market. I recently read in your paper that City Commissioner Mary Anne Servian was infuriated when she found out that Whole Foods had taken half of the parking spaces it had just built for 150 employees.

Now to be fair, Whole Foods should buy permits for its staff or at least contribute toward the cost to lessen the burden on downtown workers. The new store for sure should have the means to do this. The city in turn can makes some revenue from that property donated by the city.

People opposed to meters should visit any city the size of Sarasota or bigger. They will find out that we may be the only city in the country that has free parking.

Tonin Prossi
Sarasota