Despite being one of the most pedestrian friendly of Philadelphia's suburbs, Narberth hasn't been shielded from serious parking troubles. The reasons for our parking problems are numerous and no one seems to have a solution.
Recently, the Borough Council considered a number of parking-related proposals. The council proposed increasing parking fines from $10 to $15. They have rejected shopkeeper requests to increase downtown meters from one hour to two hours (ostensibly to encourage non-pedestrian shoppers to our business district). They have suggested offering Narberth Fire Company members free parking in consideration of their service to our community. These proposals are piecemeal and simplistic. None of them will solve our parking problem.
As the rules change, it seems we merely pass the buck between constituents. We choose to favor shoppers over employees, homeowners over apartment renters, and existing business over future development (an often proposed no-alcohol family restaurant comes to mind). That's OK though. Setting policy is the council's job. But, perhaps, we can think our way beyond the zero sum game we've been playing. Perhaps we can find a solution that actually reduces the problem.
An extreme simplification of the issue is that we require either more parking spaces or fewer cars and we can't reduce the economic activity of our town in the process. An engineering analysis of our downtown parking needs and our public and private availability should be conducted (if memory serves, we may even have a recent analysis in the borough's files). We can ask the professionals for recommendations but they don't live in our community. A creative solution comes from within -- from locals who understand locals. We need to look at that analysis ourselves and think creatively. A better solution exists, we just have to find it.
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