Premature Parking Enforcement

At least a half dozen merchants along Marcy Street are mad, claiming they're losing money after the city put red hoods over the parking meters outside their stores.

At least a dozen parking meters have been shuttered since 4 pm Wednesday as the City Different prepares for the Indian Market, which begins on Friday. A few of the owners don't mind the inconvenience that comes with any sort of celebration in the city, but they're just questioning why it was done so prematurely.

Kathy Mahone, owner of Mira, a women's clothing store, tells SFR that she could have sworn she saw some potential customers drive up, notice the hoods on the meters, then drive away, frustrated at the lack of parking.

"It'd be one thing if it was the day of the market or even the day before, but to do this kind of stuff two days before the market is even here?" Mahone asks the question incredulously. "I just don't get it."

Matt Ross, the city's public information officer, apologized to the merchants for the inconvenience in an email to SFR, saying that the city wanted to get a jump on preparations.

"Tomorrow's Friday," Ross writes, "and folks are going to start setting up very early. We know it's a bit of an inconvenience, and we're sorry about that, but in order to get the job completely done it had to start today (Thursday)."

The only problem is that even Ross, it would seem, wasn't aware that it actually started on Wednesday, not Thursday.

Some might argue that it would seem like the owners along Marcy Street, with their upscale boutiques and exquisite dining, might be over-reacting just a little in a city where parking spots are always a commodity, not just when the city decides to shutter a few of its meters.

But the owners counter point that time is indeed money, and that every minute counts.

"I must have lost at least a thousand or two thousand dollars," says Shauna Powell, owner of Full Bloom Boutique at 70 W Marcy St.

Others not-so-happy merchants these last 24 hours include owners of the Design Warehouse, the Beestro, La Boca and Il Piatto.

As of late Thursday, city workers were well past putting hoods on parking meters. Now they were getting the street ready by setting up those steel barricades that will now prevent motorists from driving down the street.

"I'm just doing my job," quipped one worker.

So brace yourselves, Marcy Street merchants. This is merely the calm before the storm. You ain't seen nothing yet.

City buses are free this weekend to encourage alternate transportation. 

Santa Fe Reporter