At the May 23 Durham city council work session, dozens of business representatives gathered at city hall to express their concerns with the state of downtown.
Nicole Thompson, president and CEO of Downtown Durham Inc., led the discussion with a 20-minute presentation highlighting various issues facing the downtown business community, including safety, disruptions from construction, and the cost of parking. City council members promised to follow up with solutions later in the year, after they returned from summer break.
On Monday, the city council started to make good on its promise when it approved an ordinance that will modify the city’s parking voucher program.
In 2022, the city’s transportation department created the parking voucher program to help alleviate the financial burden on low-income individuals who work downtown. The updated rate adjusts the reduced cost of the monthly parking pass from $140 to $35 and the cost of the evening parking permit from $80 to $20. The city also raised the income threshold for eligible workers from 60 percent of the local area median income to 80 percent.
Revenue generated from parking fees is only a small fraction of the annual budget. Unlike many revenue sources, such as property tax, that flow into the city’s general fund, parking is an enterprise fund accrued from city-offered services including solid waste and water and sewer services.
City staff performed a financial impact survey to determine what changes could be made without a substantial effect on the city budget, says council member Javiera Caballero.
“Part of it is that more folks are actually going to park because it’s cheaper,” Caballero says. “So it’s a volume game.”
The new rates have been mostly well-received by the business community.
Shawn Stokes, co-owner of three downtown businesses, has been advocating for months on behalf of his staff and neighboring businesses. He says the new parking rates offer a step in the right direction for his employees during a turbulent economic climate.
“[The new pricing] exceeded my expectations,” Stokes says.
Bruce Kenyon, a bartender at two of Stokes’ businesses–Rubies on Five Points and Remy’s Lounge–shared his frustrations with the parking situation during the May work session. For Kenyon and others, working downtown comes with a price. He says parking costs between $13 to $25 a day, which could be half the money he takes home. The situation has left Kenyon with mixed feelings about the new parking rates.
“I’m thankful that they made the decision they did, because something is better than nothing,” Kenyon says. “But we shouldn’t pay to come to work.”
City council has to negotiate between competing priorities: providing ample parking at a reasonable rate for employees and patrons while also dissuading folks from driving in the hopes they’ll choose alternatives. Durham has invested in improving those alternatives by increasing GoDurham bus service while keeping it free and installing more bike lanes in and out of downtown. But cars are still the dominant form of transportation for most Durham residents.
“It’s a regressive tax, especially when you don’t have a decent public transportation system,” Stokes says.
The price of parking hasn’t just been a pain point for downtown employees. Business owners worry that the recent parking rate increase throughout downtown has contributed to a decline in foot traffic. Now that the city center isn’t the only attractive district in Durham, patrons are choosing to visit other areas like Golden Belt that are easier to navigate, more family friendly, and where parking is free.
“[Before 2019], if you wanted to go to a part of Durham that had a concentration of restaurants and bars and nightlife, downtown was the only game in town,” Stokes says. “Fast forward, and now you have other places where you can go, where it’s well lit, it feels safe. It’s just easier. And people are going to take the path of least resistance, especially when they have kids and families.”
In downtown, parking availability is not the issue, says Caballero. Some parking spaces, like the Morgan Street parking garage, are underutilized and rarely full, even on busy weekends. Caballero admits that even she often avoids parking locations that are more than a stone’s throw from her destination, a trend she believes is prevalent with downtown patrons.
“We’ve suburbanized everything,” Caballero says. “People’s relation to space is very much like, ‘I pull my car into a spot, and I don’t want to walk far.’ I get a woman bartender getting off at two in the morning, or when I close down a kitchen—yeah, you shouldn’t have to walk far.”
Durham is not the only city trying to find a balance with its parking rates. Caballero says she is willing to test creative alternatives to the status quo, including eliminating curbside parking altogether (with the exception of handicap spaces), creating a more inviting car-free experience downtown. Even a temporary period of car freedom like at the Durham Farmers Market or the Streetery would begin to shift the culture in Durham, Caballero says.
She acknowledges that people aren’t yet willing to go completely car-free, but small steps, like families limiting themselves to one vehicle, reduces auto usage significantly.
“We have to increase our [transit] frequency and our routes, and I know that [the transportation department] is working diligently and making great improvements,” Caballero says. “That has to continue. We want folks to choose all different kinds of ways to get downtown and make it so that, especially if you’re in that [downtown] core, you don’t have to drive because there’s another mechanism to get here.”
It may be a good first step, but Kenyon, the Rubie’s bartender, calls it “a temporary fix.”
“If there’s another meeting on it, he says, “I’ll be there, because we’re not done yet.” Kenyon says.
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