Residents angry over paid parking

As the saga continues regarding the city’s need to impose a parking meter program on the residents and visitors of this community, it is beyond anyone’s imagination why the City Council insists on exposing itself to the torture with the resistance that has been leveled at the city by our residents. Why is it necessary to be like other communities and not preserve the uniqueness of South Lake Tahoe for the residents and visitors to enjoy without the nuisance and inconvenience of having to manage and oversee their parking needs? In my observation this past six months, those of us who have followed the deliberations on this subject have witnessed a variety of excuses why paid parking is necessary. It first was unveiled with the need to raise money for the city treasury to avoid personnel layoffs and offset costs to the city for maintenance of the various facilities. The next version was to patronize the residents and visitors by claiming the need for parking management. The final version was the need to convince the community that we need to abandon our vehicles and walk to these facilities; we should be grateful for the concern. The city’s reputation with parking should be well known to this community when it was forced to take responsibility for the parking garage at Heavenly Village. A well-written article in the Mountain News several months ago described very precisely what that has cost the taxpayer over the past decade. And in order to avoid a default in bond payment, the city is seeking to refinance the bonds and reduce the annual costs by extending those bonds for another decade — “kick the can down the road.” The residents of this community are obviously angry with the city and are exploring their legal options with regard to this proposal.

John Cefalu

South Lake Tahoe