2011-03-04 Reg - Laserfiche WebLink

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Jeff Weintrop, 7832 Greensfelder Lane, is the Vice Chairman of the Loop Special Business District and also the owner of the Silver Lady. He said the Loop business owners believe the suggested one dollar parking fee on the City lots would be detrimental to the community. He said the Loop needs to provide free parking to compete with malls, other shopping areas and other shopping districts. Paid parking would also interfere with established tenant leases with tenants and established right-of-ways and present parking arrangements that have worked well for over forty years. Mr. Weintrop said the estimated income would only happen with ideal surroundings and the numbers the City is using are unrealistic. He said the Loop business employees cannot afford to pay for parking in these economic times and the business owners cannot afford to give it to them. Mr. Weintrop said people will park for free and will find spots in the Loop and neighborhoods. He noted that St. Louis City installed parking meters at the Grand Center and that lasted only thirty days, because people stopped coming. Mr. Weintrop would like to keep an open positive relationship with the City and the Loop Business owners. Jessica Bueler, 6362 Delmar Ms. Bueler is the owner of HSB Tobacconist and the President of the Loop Special Business District. She said that free parking has allowed the Loop to be competitive with the malls and other shopping areas. Ms. Bueler said places as Laclede’s Landing and Union Station have declined dramatically with the addition of paid parking. She said paid parking would hurt the ability of the Loop to attract visitors for small owner- operated businesses. Ms. Bueler said the Loop businesses backed two ½ cent sales tax increases, a ¼ cent Economic Development sales tax and the Loop Transportation Development District the City said they needed. She passed out a letter and asked that it be distributed to the Council and is attached at end of minutes. Kelly von Plonski Ms. von Plonski is the owner of Subterranean Books. She said people will not pay to come to the Loop and will go to the chains with free large surface parking lots or go to Amazon. Ms. von Plonski said that would put her out of business and University City would lose sales tax revenue. Willie Burns, 1150 Wilson Mr. Burns said that since the City received the grant they were looking for, how much longer would it be for the original Wilson buyout. The Mayor said the City Manager would be in touch with him tomorrow. Jackie Womack, 7300 Ahern Mr. Womack said things have changed and he no longer feels he lives in a neighborhood but rather a Section Eight area. He said if he lives there and is afraid, he might as well live somewhere else. Mr. Womack said he feels like he lives hostage in his own neighborhood. Patrick Liberto, 6269 Delmar Mr. Liberto is the owner of Meshuggah Café is also concerned about the paid parking proposal. He talked about how private business and the City works together to build a community and felt U City had a great history of doing this. He talked about the way the businesses and the City shared in the building of the parking garage, taking care of the planters, and how the Economic Development Retail Sales Tax helped to put in pedestrian light poles. Mr. Liberto said there have been very few City officials at the Loop Special Business District monthly meetings. He thought it would have been good if the City would have had a conversation with the Loop Business District saying that it was being considered and asked for thoughts as it has been the 2