Remember how, a while back, we were discussing how Eastern Michigan University wanted to privatize their parking enforcement, selling off the rights to their 9,700 parking spaces to an out-of-state firm for a term of 35 years in exchange for a big up-front payment of $55 million? Well, as of yesterday, this new for-profit company has taken over, and, as I hear it, business owners along Cross Street, just opposite the University, are not too happy. You see, it would appear as though this new, for-profit parking enforcement company has decided not to honor the decades-old agreement that EMU had with the city to make their downtown parking spaces open to the public in the evening, and on weekends. So, last night, while people were dining out at Tower Inn, getting coffee at Sweetwaters, and drinking beer at the Wurst Bar, employees of this company were out ticketing all of their cars. And, right now, business owners aren’t sure what they’re going to do, as they’ve lost about 63 parking spots overnight, without any warning… Following is a message left for City Council member Pete Murdock by Tower Inn owner Rois Savvides.
Murdock responded to Savvides as follows. “This was not specifically discussed (at City Council),” Murdock said, “but the assumption was that there would be no changes to existing arrangements between the City and EMU.” He then went on to say that he’d already reached out to EMU to see if we could work something out. [As you might recall, given the structure of the deal between EMU and the corporate entities purchasing the parking concession, they had to have the blessing of City Council before they could finalize the bond funding at the heart of the deal. There was some debate, fueled in part by the fact that many on the EMU campus were against the privatization, but Ypsilanti City Council eventually voted in support of the arrangement.]
Hopefully I’m wrong, but my guess is that the out-of-state company that put this deal together won’t be terribly sympathetic to the desires of our local business community, especially when there’s money to be made issuing parking tickets… For the sake of everyone involved, though, I’m hopeful that a compromise can be reached. Because, without it, I’m afraid that we might loose local businesses along that block of Cross Street, and the jobs that they provide. And I know it’s probably not in EMU’s best interest to have boarded up storefronts across the street from their campus.
To give you a sense of how significant of an issue this is, check out the map above, which shows the two EMU lots in question, both of which have been open to the public for decades in the evenings, and over weekends… I didn’t do a detailed count, but, having talked with a few people who work in the area, I think there are about 50 metered spots in the vicinity of the block in question, and limited non-metered parking spots. So, I think it’s safe to say that the loss of 63 spots isn’t trivial.
update: Councilman Pete Murdock just shared the following in the comments section. It’s a letter from the parking company to EMU leadership.
“I spoke with the owner of the Tower Inn yesterday and then again today. I told him that we were looking into the agreement and speaking internally to see if we can find a solution. In the meantime (until Monday at the earliest), we will only issue citations for permits in the lot between 6am and 5pm on weekdays. Our intention is to propose a long term solution that does not keep the general population from accessing these businesses. I will contact the owner of the Tower Inn today to let him know that we will continue to limit citations to the hours of 6am through 5pm until mid-June as we do our best to work toward a long term resolution.”
