Last week for the web, Lena Geller wrote about the Durham City Council’s unanimous vote to increase parking rates in downtown Durham between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. from $1.50 to $2.50 per hour for street parking and from $1.25 to $2.25 per hour in city parking garages. Our readers had thoughts.

“How can they imagine this will help businesses that really need customers???” wrote Facebook commenter

Mary Molina. “All that ‘Get back on the bull’ … yeah, right.”

“Need to raise money to pay for artsy crosswalks somehow,” wrote commenter David Rubin.

But a couple of readers had a different take.

“For all who are against the increase, how often do you visit the downtown area weekdays, between 8:00 am and 7:00 pm?” asked commeter Marty O’Sullivan. “My guess is the increase is to deter downtown workers from using up parking spaces that are meant for visitor use. I’m not crazy about it, but they need to make up for all the years of free parking!”

“GOOD! Taking the bus is better for the environment and congestion,” wrote Twitter commenter

@BolanderKnows. “This city is growing exponentially. We can not have everyone driving to the city. Also, i dont want to pay the taxes of others who choose to drive in a city … Glad they are offsetting the burden to drivers.”

Commenter @collardsandwich comes with the anarchist’s approach: “I will continue not to pay. Never put money on the meters and never been caught.”

Good luck with that! We also published a profile on Durham’s longtime, outgoing clerk of court Archie Smith by Maddie Wray from the 9th Street Journal. We got this message from Steve Livingstone:

“I enjoyed very much the subject article published in your July 6 edition. Mr. Smith’s stoic and professional statements surrounding his acceptance of his loss to Ms. Thompson embody in my opinion what it means to think, act and perform like a public servant (others could take a lesson). The article describes how Mr. Smith acted to expand the role of his job to include large increments of time and energy for the direct support of people in his district and beyond it. You don’t find this in a job description! Durham County, North Carolina was very fortunate to have him at the court’s helm for 20 years!”

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