How much would you pay for a year of hassle-free parking in Walnut Creek?

It's auction time for local public elementary schools. At parties taking place over the next few weeks, parent organizations will auction off travel and entertainment packages, gift cards and items hand-crafted by the kids themselves. These auctions are big money-makers for school programs funded by parent-teacher organizations.

Perhaps the big-ticket item on any of the schools' auction rosters is a  "VIP" parking pass for downtown Walnut Creek. The Murwood Elementary Parent Teacher Association is auctioning it off at its Auction for Education gala this Saturday.

The listed value is $1500.

A Murwood mom shared this item with me.

The permit is donated by Regional Parking Inc., which manages many of the private lots around town. 

Anyway, you buy this permit and you can park in downtown lots managed by Regional Parking, any time of the day and any day of the year. You don't have to worry about running out to your car to feed the meter after two hours.

"An incredible luxury for a downtown worker or heavy shopper or anyone who likes the convenience of Free Parking," a description of the auction item reads.

I've seen Regional Parking donate this permit to other local nonprofits to auction off to raise money for their causes. The money raised by the Murwood Elementary auction will help some of those "extras" that state budget cuts have taken away: fund science education, library books, technology, a poetry program and teacher training to implement a writer's workshop in classrooms.

Crazy in Suburbia: Yes, Council's Wish to Squeeze Mt. Diablo Boulevard To Two Lanes Will Take Lots of Political Will

I also published a version of this column at Walnut Creek Patch, where you can always find more Walnut Creek community news.

City and business leaders will start looking at an idea to reduce one lane of traffic in either direction of Mt. Diablo Boulevard--with the idea of creating a business-boosting downtown thoroughfare that will be more pedestrian friendly and accommodate more outdoor restaurants and parking.

At a special study session Thursday, City Council members seemed excited about this new approach to the stretch of Mt. Diablo between California Boulevard and Broadway, according to a report in the Contra Costa Times.

"We are supportive of the thought," the Times reported Mayor Sue Rainey as saying. "But there are a lot of people who will say 'That's how I get home at night.'"

A lot of people might also ask this question on a weekday afternoon: How am I going to get to Safeway? That's the question I often ask when I get stuck behind cars at Olympia Place--because two blocks ahead pedestrians are pressing those stupid blinking lights that let them allow them to randomly stop traffic at the Mt. Diablo Boulevard's Broadway Plaza crossing.

Damn, I say, why didn't I stick to the Newell Avenue route? And, the most direct route home to my neighborhood on the west side of town is via Mt. Diablo Boulevard.

Council members stressed that the idea is in infancy and they acknowledged that it could make a lot of residents and business owners mad.

Yep, I bet it will. Hey, I was kind of mad when I heard the idea mentioned at Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

Still, maybe in the long term, we can all be trained, and we can all come to see that this idea is a good thing. I can see how it could reduce that four-lane divide between the two sides of town: the so-called "Mason-Dixon" line, in the words of the self-described destination guru that the Downtown Business Association hired to market the city.

Council member Kish Rajan said this idea enhances the goal of making Walnut Creek a "pedestrian paradise."
Mayor Pro Tem Cindy Silva warned that taking away downtown's "four-lane highway" must be done "carefully." (Highway? Not during Christmas shopping time.)

And Gary Skrel says people may not understand the idea at first and that the city will have to have the "political will" to do it.

Busted for an expired meter in the private lot behind Peet's: Now I owe $105

I stopped in for a mocha at Peet's coffee this morning, and pumped enough coins into the meter in the rear private lot to buy me 18 minutes.

But I ran into an old friend, and that conversation, it turns out, took longer than those 18 minutes. About 10 minutes past my meter's expiration, I found this warning sign on my window, and I have since learn I owe a $105 for a total of three tickets.

A year ago, I reported that to some degree you can ignore those parking tickets you receive for an expired meter at one of those private lots around town. Legally, those tickets don't have the "force of law."

This is what I reported more than a year ago. I based this assertion on a legal interpretation offered by KGOAM810 radio lawyer Len Tillem and affirmed by former Walnut Creek Public Information Officer Brad who check with City Attorney Paul Valle-Riestra.

So, you can tear up the ticket, and the DMV can't come after you.

However, the parking company that manages these lots, Regional Parking, can come after you if you start accumulating multiple parking violations--and you don't pay them. Regional Parking, which keeps track of your license plate and violations, can tow your car if it catches you for multiple violations.

I came out of Peet's at about 10:42 a.m. and found this sign pasted on my window: "Computerized records indicate that this vehicle [my Toyota Camry] has multiple outstanding parking invoices. Regional Parking Inc., is seeking the establishment of such debt (s) in a judicial proceeding."

My other violations were for August 2009 for parking in a no-public-parking area at Mechanics Bank and for, on October 29, having an expired meter. This is when I took my son shopping at the Halloween Spirit Store, set up in the former Mark Morris tire, at Mt. Diablo Boulevard and Locust Street. It was evening, and Regional Parking employees were set up to pounce on Spirit Store shoppers whose meters had expired.

With this sign, I take it I have been warned. I better pay up or risk getting towed the next time.

WC Parking Chronicles Part 1: A reader’s confession about how a valet parking situation pushed him over the edge

A reader e-mailed me a couple weeks ago with his story of frustration about encountering many empty valet-parking designated spaces in an otherwise packed downtown lot. This reader sounds like a normally sane, rational person (unlike yours truly), but this particular situation, on a Saturday afternoon, made him mad and lash out in a way that caught him by surprise.

Before I let this reader explain his story, I wanted to let you know that his story prompted me to request a copy of the online Downtown Parking Customer Survey. It was a survey of people of who, work and visit in Walnut Creek. Nearly 400 respondents participated in this survey, and 237 of them shared their personal opinions on the parking situation. In reviewing those opinions, I determined the top gripes amongst people who had them. I then did an e-mail Question and Answer about those gripes with Kish Rajan, a City Councilman and co-chair the Downtown Parking Task Force, which was formed in response to concerns about parking. That Question and Answer is in the post below.

I should note that one of those top gripes had to do with valet parking, specifically just the sort of thing that hit a raw nerve with this reader. Not all respondents were negative in this survey; indeed, a fair number said they were satisfied with the amount of parking in downtown. But, I couldn’t find any respondents saying they liked the valet parking program, instituted by the Downtown Business Association. It is available in different garages, is run by a private company, Signature Parking, and costs $5 to $7.

Here is this reader's story. He had his meltdown in the garage off Duncan Street, a location for one of these Signature Parking valet stations:

Now, please note that I have been very supportive of the parking situation in WC in general considering the four big, free parking garages downtown. However today I flew off the handle. This afternoon, as I turned the corner where Starbucks is, I noted there were 40 spots available in the garage, and entered happily knowing there'd be a spot available. Soon however I noticed cars backing up, while cars were exiting as well. Hmm, I wondered why all these people were leaving at the same time. Eventually I rounded the last corner, and hit the highest level outside. And that was where I noticed cars doing u-turns well before the end of the lot. I figured people didn't want to park outside as it was drizzling at the time. So when I finally get to that point, I noticed it was blocked off for valet parking. And by the way, the valet parking there was empty.


So that's what happened the 40 extra spots I thought. I was about to do a u-turn, when I decided to take a mini-stand, got out of the car, and proceeded to kick each of the valet parking signs down in a fit of anger at what happened. I then did the u-turn, and when I reached the bottom I found a 20-minute spot which I took. When I got out of the car, a young man who worked for the valet company approached me and asked me why I did that, something like, "why are you making my job hard for me man?"


So I proceeded to show him the 40 spots which show available, and he replied that that's not his problem, and I shouldn't have done that. I told him it wasn't anything against him personally, but he should tell his manager to get the "available" sign adjusted because a lot of people wasted way more time than he had putting the signs back up.


The issue of why the city of WC even allowed that huge valet section to be taken out of service instead of public parking is a separate issue but which also should be addressed. And as a formerly happy WC shopper who has been quite satisfied with the parking situation, well, let's just say that has changed, and if this continues I'll be sure to remind people to avoid WC if possible because of the lack of parking.

 
The city is also inviting the public to a talk this Thursday evening, co-hosted with the City of Lafayette, by a UCLA professor to discuss the concepts of his book The High Cost of Free Parking. Donald Shoup is a professor of urban planning, and he will share his ideas about parking policies as they relate to the economy, the environment, and urban design.  The talk starts at 7 p.m. and takes place at Lafayette's Library and Learning Center, 3491 Mt. Diablo Blvd.. Although the talk is free, it would be a good idea to let organizers know you want to attend so that they can reserve a seat: (925) 299-3201, or lmartin@lovelafayette.org.

Walnut Creek’s automated parking garages will still have a human touch

Over the weekend, I read the story in the Contra Costa Times that Walnut Creek’s three city-owned parking garages are going to go fully automated starting next month. This means that electronic pay stations will replace human attendants.

According to the Times, as a motorist using one of the garages, you will pick up a yellow plastic parking token as you drive in and park. You will be able to get that token validated at about 70 local restaurants and businesses. Then, when you are done eating, shopping, or going to a show at the Lesher Center, you will take that token, embedded with a computer chip and programmed to calculate in your validation, to a pay station. You will insert the token and pay your fee--with cash, coin, or credit card. Then you will insert the token into an exit machine when you leave.

But you have the choice to avoid the token and validation system by swiping a credit card to enter and exit the garage.

Walnut Creek’s public services department tells the Times that this automated parking system—which costs $216,000 a year, the same amount the city save annually by using it—will be “easier, more efficient, and provide options for payment.”

But I wondered.

Like me, many of you have probably encountered these automated systems in public garages elsewhere in the Bay Area, notably San Francisco. Yes, these systems, with their pay stations, can work very well. They can definitely spare you some time, waiting in line of cars behind some driver, who is searching for the bills in his wallet to pay the human parking attendant.

On the other hand, I’ve also visited these garages when the system doesn’t quite work as well as it should. A pay station is broken. Or, a line forms behind people who are struggling to figure out how to use the stations. Maybe a crowd of people hit all the pay stations at once, which I could see happening in the North Locust Street garage when several shows at the Lesher Center let out at around the same time.

I thought it would be nice to know that there would be a human being around, to whom drivers could go or call, in case a pay station or exit machine is broken, they are having trouble figuring out how to work the machines, or there are lines to pay. The story only mentioned that some garage attendants would lose their jobs, but that some would stay on to help people use the new machines.

But how would exactly would these human beings stay around to help? At all hours of the day and night? This automated system will allow the garages to be open 24 hours a day.

I know I'd be pretty annoyed if it's late at night, and I can't get my car out of one of the damned garages because the automated system has a glitch in it. And I can't find someone immediately to help out.

I checked in with Gayle Vassar, the city’s community relations manager, and she kindly got me some of the answers I was looking for. Here is her response:

While we are reducing staff, the new staffing model includes a manager and cashier/office assistant at the North Locust Garage. In addition, two customer service "rovers" will be available to respond to customer's calls for assistance (via intercoms). Even at 3 a.m., someone will be available to respond to customer calls or inoperable equipment. Also, we plan to have parking ambassadors for the first couple of months following installation to help with the learning curve.

She adds that much of this information is now available on the city's new handy dandy parking website.

Staff furlough oops means no tickets for expired meters in downtown Walnut Creek Saturday!

Yeah, you can kind of park for free on the street in downtown Walnut Creek today--a bonus meter holiday if you will. Normally, city meters are enforced on Saturdays. But not today, I've just been told by police.

You'll see why if you go downtown. A bunch of parking meters are out of order, the little yellow flags in their windows indicating as much. Soccer Son and I, out for a Starbucks run this morning, drove up and down Locust and Main Streets between Bothelo and Civic and counted 55 out-of-order meters alone. We didn't get a chance to check out Broadway or cross streets like Olympic, Cypress and Bonanza.

Blame the Great Recession for this Oops in the city's parking meter program. Or blame an unforseen consequence of the city putting most of its city staff on furlough between December 24 and January 3, to offset budget shortfalls.
 
A reliable tipster tells me that every city department was affected by the furloughs, except for police, police dispatch, and parking enforcement. The rest of the city departments either had no one in office, or a skeleton crew. Among those furloughed were those staff members who go around collecting coins from all the downtown parking meters.

Guess what happened? A lot of the meters filled up to capacity. My tipster contacted me on Thursday, saying that visitors to downtown found meters so stuffed they were blinking "Out of Order."  My tipster also says that parking enforcement officers were told to stop issuing citations for even expired meters.

Yesterday, Friday, was New Year's Day, a city-designated meter holiday. But today is not. Still, with the coin collectors not returning to work until Monday, visitors, choosing to park in the street, will get a bonus holiday. The police department just confirmed to me that parking enforcement officers will not be issuing tickets for expired meters.

We parked at an Out of Order meter in front of Starbucks, and were prepared to feed coins into the slot, just to see what would happen, but a quarter was stuck in there. 

One friend's poorly lit, $4.50 private parking lot blues

A friend, who lives outside Walnut Creek, came into town the other night. He sent me an e-mail, with this accompanying photo, that suggests a couple things:

1) First, that people--or some people, that is--still find it tricky to differentiate between the city and the the privately run lots. Either because these people fail to properly read all the signs, or because the signage on the meters and posted at these lots is still confusing.

2) Those who run the lots perhaps need to make it more clear for people to figure out what's public, what's private, as well as improve the lighting so that people can make that distinction and know how to properly pay the required fees.

My friend complained that "the city" needs to do something about the poor lighting at this lot at 1600 Bonanza Street. He had a hard time reading the panel on the computerized pay station at about 9 p.m. because it was so dark. When he told me that he was there at 9 p.m., I figured it had to be a private lot, because city meters stop running at 6 p.m. He just assumed it was a public lot. And was there any signage around to indicate otherwise?

Yes, it turns out this is a private lot, at the corner of Bonanza and Locust streets. And when I saw the pay station, in the daytime on Friday afternoon, an umbrella stood over it, perhaps blocking out any of the light from nearby stores and restaurants at night.

Also, there are some signs that indicate that this is a private lot, but how well can anyone read those signs at night? Meanwhile, there is this larger sign at the entrance of the lot that says "Pay Public Parking."

At night, entering the lot, and seeing the sign, one might assume it is a city-run lot. All the sign says is "pay in advance at the computerized pay station."

Speaking of downtown parking, how has your holiday parking experience been in Walnut Creek?

Has it been a hassle? What about the garage behind Nordstrom and Macy's? Have you been doing endless loops around that garage, trying to find a free space?

Or, have you made use of the valet parking program offered by Walnut Creek's Downtown Business Association?

According to Signature Parking's blog, the holiday program incorporates several of their existing curbside locations at Il Fornaio and Ruth's Chris Steakhouse alongside a new location at 1250 Locust Street right across from Century Theater. The fee for valet parking at the new Locust Street location will be $5 and all other locations throughout town will charge $7.

"It is our goal to make valet parking a convenient and easily accesible parking option for all visitors of downtown Walnut Creek," Signature Parking says. "As an added convenience, customer of the service will be able to drop off accumulated shopping purchases at the valet station for delivery to their vehicles, making extended shopping and dining outings easier."

Or what about the trolley? Have you taken advantage of this free service? The cable-car styled green trolley loops daily around Walnut Creek, with a stop at BART. It runs every 15 minutes, and gets you to Broadway Plaza. And through December 31, it was to have extended hours to 10 p.m.

Do you like valet parking?

Valet parking is becoming more common in Walnut Creek, especially now during the holidays with the Downtown Business Association offering valet parking for $5 to $7. But prior to the start of this program on November 20, there had already been valet parking for the Cheesecake Factory in the parking garage at Plaza Escuela and in the parking garage for Nordstrom.

We dodged a very massive valet parking bullet with the original proposal for a new Neiman Marcus in Broadway Plaza. The original project plans would have necessitated transforming the entire South Main Street garage into valet parking during peak shopping times. That proposal faced legal challenges, which forced changes to the project--including the elimination of
the valet parking scheme. The rest, I guess, is history, with Walnut Creek voters saying "yes" on November 3 to a more modest new department store project, sans valet parking, in Broadway Plaza.

I call the original proposal, with is massive valet parking scheme, “annoying” because I am so not a fan of valet parking. But by making this statement, I am not objecting to the holiday valet parking program, coordinated by the city, the Downtown Business Association, and Signature Parking. This program may provide an elegant solution to holiday shopping and parking hassles.

My aversion to valet parking is strictly personal, and perhaps neurotic.

I’m just wondering if anyone else out there shares this aversion as well.

In my job, I have had the opportunity to eat at very nice restaurants or stay in very nice hotels—the kind where you have to drive up and valet park. First of all, I drive a 10-year-old Toyota, with its fair share of scratches, bangs, and rust forming on the rim of my driver’s side door. I always feel self-conscious pulling up to a hotel behind a shiny new BMW or Porsche.

The only benefit of having a crappy older car (which runs very well, by the way) and turning it over to a valet is that I’m not going to get all that bummed if it gets bumped.

But my biggest problem with valet parking is that I feel like I’m giving up control and access to easy mobility. Maybe this is an American thing, with our love of our wheels. I don't know. Or it's more evidence of my own neurosis. This sense of giving up control becomes more of an issue if you go to a hotel, where your car gets parked somewhere--maybe blocks away--and then you have to call the front desk and wait for someone to bring your car around if you want to leave the property. If I'm visiting a beautiful place with lots to sight-seeing opportunities, I just want to be able to leave my room, hop into my car, and go.

Valet parking would never be my first, second, or even third choice in Walnut Creek. I gave in to local valet parking when I attended a family dinner at Scott’s. When dinner was done and we said our good-byes, it irked my neurotic, impatient self that I couldn’t just walk out of that restaurant, find my car in the underground garage that serves that restaurant, and go. I had to wait! The night we went, there was one guy on duty, and he was a bit overworked, so it took me, like 10 minutes, to get my car.

But maybe you like valet parking. I have a co-worker who very much likes it, and was even excited about the original Neiman Marcus/Broadway Plaza valet parking proposal. He's the kind of guy who drives a cool-looking car, dresses well, and probably thinks valet parking makes things easier for him. He probably also likes that VIP feeling that a valet parking service can provide. (By the way, doesn't the guy in this silhouetted image remind you of Mad Men's Don Draper?)

To me, valet parking just feels so restrictive.

But again, I'm not voicing any general disapproval of this holiday valet parking program. I'm just stating my personal valet parking "issue." Think I should talk to my therapist about it?

If using this downtown valet parking service makes sense to you, helps to ease your holiday parking and shopping stress, go for it! Here are more details from Signature Parking's blog:

The program will incorporate several of our existing curbside locations at Il Fornaio and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse alongside a new location at 1250 Locust Street, (The Old Veterans Building Lot) located directly across from Century Theaters. The Fee for valet parking at the new Locust Street location will be $5 and all other participating locations throughout town will charge $7.

The Public Valet Locations can be easily identified by valet podiums with large signs indicating “Public Valet Parking”, with valet attendants in Red Polo Shirts.

It is our goal to make valet parking a convenient and easily accesible parking option for all visitors of downtown Walnut Creek. As an added convenience, customer of the service will be able to drop off accumulated shopping purchases at the valet station for delivery to their vehicles, making extended shopping and dining outings easier.

Walnut Creek schools send out their condolences to the family of the man killed in Friday's Half Moon Bay boating accident

A note went out yesterday from the principals of Walnut Creek Intermediate and Walnut Heights Elementary schools to the Runte family of Walnut Creek. Matthew Runte, 49, of Walnut Creek was identified as the man whose boat capsized Friday evening in rough waters off Half Moon Bay.

Bay City News Service reports that Runte was one of two men on a 34-foot sailboat that overturned at about 4:25 p.m. The Coast Guard immediately responded to the accident and rescued Runte's shipmate. A Coast Guard helicopter spotted Runte in the water about 5:37 p.m. He was pulled from the water by a harbor patrol, administered CPR, and taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The Walnut Heights and Walnut Creek Intermediate communities would like to extend our deepest sympathy and condolences to the Runte family in the loss of their beloved husband and father last week in a boating accident off of the San Mateo coast. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Runte family and friends.

When we receive the specifics about the service, we will pass this information on to our school communities.

Sincerely,
Susan Drews, Principal, Walnut Heights
Kevin Collins, Principal, Walnut Creek Intermediate

Walnut Creek braces for holiday crowds, parking, traffic while questions percolate over the health of this year's retail season

Even before the Halloween decorations and other tchotchkes came down in local stores, the Christmas stuff went up.

So, forget Black Friday, the Christmas shopping season is already in full swing. As a matter of fact, some retailers are getting a jump on Black Friday. According to the Wall Street Journal, retailers are turning it into "monthlong parade of promotions" by offering high-profile discounts. So in a post-Great Recession world, Black Friday might be going by the wayside. And, by the way, if you know of any major deals you want to share with readers, chime in.

A few weeks ago, predictions were grim about this coming holiday shopping season. More recently though, some retailers have posted unexpected third-quarter profits, including Wal-Mart stores, Inc., Kohl's Corp., and Nordstrom Inc. Still, the Chicago Tribune says, "although the results beat company expectations, executives at all three chains conceded that they faced a tough selling period ahead." So even though retailers' profits are up, consumers may still be wary, especially with national unemployment at 10.2 percent.

What will this mean for the East Bay's retail Mecca, downtown Walnut Creek? Who knows.? I'm guessing that the crowds will still descend, as they always have; the question is whether they will spend like it's 2006, or spend more time browsing, looking for those deep discounts, and ultimately spending like it's 2008.

There may be more empty store fronts than the same time last year. However, new shops and restaurants have been going in. And, a couple major chain retailers that, some analysts said, were not expected to make it into 2010 have hung in: Cost Plus World Market and Williams-Sonoma.

City staff are making an effort to "tame the holiday traffic Grinch."

The city, the Downtown Business Association, Chamber of Commerce, and property managers for the major retial and private parking garages have "teamed up to create stress-free parking for the season."

According to the city's November/December edition of its In a Nutshell, "the goal is to get cars off downtown streets as quickly as possible by making parking easy to find and encouraging shoppers to 'park once' and walk or use other means of getting around." The powers that be hope to accomplish this by posting new signs leading motorists to parking facilities; police staff directing traffic; and extended hours for the free downtown trolley. Between November 27 and December 12, the trolley will run until 10 p.m., and until 11 p.m., between December 14 and December 23.

Councilman Kish Rajan said this new emphasis on easing the parking and traffic crunch was not prompted by concerns about Recession retail struggles.

"I am not aware of any specific anaylsis/ projection of the crowds we expect," he e-mailed me. "Of course we are hopeful for a good shopping season. The intent here was to take some of the longer term ideas we considered and to put them in place right away -- both to try improve customer experience this season and to test what works best for the long term. "

The city invites you to voice concerns about Walnut Creek's parking, including any gripes you have about those private lots!

I have read those reports in which the city says it has enough parking, if not on the street, then in its various public and private garages around town.

You know, I can’t dispute the city’s contention. I do usually find parking in the garages, when I decide to not be lazy and to forego finding a street space right in front of a business I want to patronize. However, I rarely find parking in the garage behind Macy’s and Nordstrom, especially on Saturdays or Sundays. Consequently, I rarely shop at either store—not that I’m a big shopper anyway—but sometimes I have wanted to go to either store and have encountered a pretty frustrating parking experience.

I digress. As usual.

What are your parking pet peeves? The city's Downtown Parking Task Force is seeking your input with this survey. And, the city is asking you to comment on those private downtown lots. That's my pet peeve, as I will explain momentarily. Here is what the city says:

If you've ever come to downtown Walnut Creek, you've got an opinion on parking. Here's your chance to share it, with a quick online survey created by the Downtown Parking Task Force.From street parking to parking garages, the Task Force wants to know what works for you, and what doesn't. The answers will help the Task Force achieve its mission of "Making Parking Work in Downtown Walnut Creek.

Deadline for answering the survey is 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14

In case you're interested, here are a Crazy Soccer Mom's pet peeves:

First, I think the city should align its meter holidays with all federal or state holidays—or any holidays that city offices are closed. I’ve stated this before, and I know some of you are tired of hearing me gripe about this.

Second, the city and the Downtown Business Association need to seriously look at the negative image created by the company or companies that manage the private lots around town. I have covered this perplexing private parking issue before, by citing expert legal opinion that tickets issued by these private companies have no force of law. But that doesn't stop them from trying to scare you into thinking they do.

By the way, Robert Power, the past president of the Downtown Business Association heads Regional Parking, which manages parking facilities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including Walnut Creek. "Our goal is to ensure customer parking, discourage illegal parking and create convenient employee parking alternatives," the company's website says.

Mr. Power, I hope you don’t take offense by this post, but I have to say that many of the complaints I hear about downtown parking centers on public confusion--and a perception among motorists--that these lots are not all that welcoming to visitorsand in fact see visitors as a way to make an easy buck.

Sorry, but that's the perception.

And, if the city and Downtown Business Association are truly serious about generating good will among patrons to their community, they will look at this issue.

Some of these private lots have meters, and those meters can be confusing. I’ve seen people at the private lot behind Peet’s coffee, on a Sunday morning, for example, trying to make sense of why those meters are in force on a Sunday morning.

Meters don’t usually operate on Sundays, right? Oh, but wait, those are city-run meters, and, but, wait, what does that sign say? These meters are private? What is that all about? What’s the difference between a private meter and a city meter? If I get a ticket, do I have to go to court? Will it hurt my driving record? For the record, no it won't. According to a report in the East Bay Express, as a private company, Regional Parking doesn't have access to confidential DMV address information. "Therefore, drivers could theoretically ignore a ticket from the company without consequence unless they later parked in a private lot patrolled by the company."

A couple evenings before Halloween, my son and I stopped in at the Spirit Store, housed in the former Mark Morris tire business at Mt. Diablo Boulevard and Locus Street. The meters there demand to be fed until 11 p.m., five hours past when the city-run meters shut down. Lots of people were trying to get in their last-minute Halloween shopping, and lots of people were trying to park in that lot.

Sure, the owners of the lot have a right to charge, but they had their enforcers out in full force, ready to write tickets to those whose meters had run out. The image was of a property owner, eager to reap whatever small profit he/she could from the crowds of Halloween shoppers.

Here, I was spending dollars in downtown Walnut Creek. And so were a lot of other people, and the parking lot owner and/or manager was trying to rake in every other last penny he/she could.

Well, if you want to fill out the survey, again, here is the link.

Downtown Walnut Creek salon patrons shocked! Nice parking enforcement officer tries to give motorist a break

Was in one of those Locust Street nail salons, getting a pedicure, a necessary ritual, these days, of feminine maintenance.

I parked in the garage next to the Lesher Center, having learned hard lessons in the past about parking on the street when I'm not sure how long I'll be in a certain business.

But another motorist didn't know better, or forgot to feed his meter enough coins. Anyway, one of those usually dreaded city parking enforcement officers popped in to the salon and asked if any of the customers, enjoying foot soaks in massage chairs, had an Acura SUV. The officer was wearing a smile and cocked his head in the direction of the offending vehicle parked right outside the salon window. Basically, he was letting us know that if any of us were the owner, he'd be happy to let us run outside and feed some more coins in the meter.

Alas, none of the four or five customers was the Acura owner. The officer backed out of the door and popped his head into the business across the way, to ask if the Acura owner was in there.

There was a stunned moment of silence, and then the woman in the massage chair next to me said: "That was nice of him."

"Yeah," said a gentleman on the other side of me, getting his manly no-polish pedicure. "You don't see that very often."

We all shook our heads some more at what felt like an amazing event in downtown Walnut Creek: a parking enforcement officer giving motorists a break. By the way, the officer pictured above is not, I don't believe, the officer who came into the salon today. Not to say that the guy pictured above isn't equally as friendly...

However, I think the officer we encountered today is the same one who, yes, gave me a ticket a while back, but in an apolegetic way. Yes, it was one of those situations where I just made it back to my car, a minute or two late. He said he had already begun writing up the ticket; if he hadn't, he said he would have let it slide.

The big questions facing us are: Was the officer acting on his own initiative--and will he get in big trouble, now that I've possibly outed him as being nice? Or has a message come from up in the parking department hierarchy that Walnut Creek needs to be a little less stringent in its parking policies?

As some of you know, I've had my own gripes in the past about the city's seemingly mercenary parking policies. And, of course, a city task force is currently studying the vexing issue of downtown parking.

Oh, and by the way, I don't know if the parking officer found the Acura owner or ended up having to issue the ticket. After recovering from my shock, I returned to reading People's article about the latest Jon Gosselin escapade.

Got a gripe about Walnut Creek parking? Join the city's new task force ...

... Or at least pay attention to what the task force is up to.

But if you want to join, the City Council is inviting four members of the public to join a task force to help city and business officials come up with a long-term plan to manage downtown parking.

Apparently, the council decided to expand the the force from nine members and bring in four public members this last Tuesday, according to the Contra Costa Times. The Times adds that Mayor Gary Skrel wanted to set up the plan when he came into office, apparently recognizing that parking continues to be a sensitive hot-button issue. Public perception about the availability of parking has never matched the city's continued claims that downtown parking is actually plentiful--thanks to city and privately owned parking garages, according to a 2006 study.

Councilman Kish Rajan, who is heading this task force, summed up these observations from the study about the downtown parking situation:

--Walnut Creek has established a remarkably successful regional retail center that brings many visitors and sales tax dollars that are critical to keeping our local economy strong.

--Walnut Creek’s residents have an expectation that, in exchange for this commerce we enable, residents should have access to parking that is easy to find
and reasonably priced

--Walnut Creek has a large existing parking supply, but it is not properly aligned to our demand.

--Therefore, before we commit dollars, time and more land to building more parking, we would do well to first maximize the large supply we have today.

Gipes about downtown parking have just grown louder since Broadway Plaza proposed bringing a new department store into Walnut Creek (Neiman Marcus, of course).

The parking task force will be made up of those four community members, plus Councilman Rajan, Mayor Pro Tem Sue Rainey, and members of the planning and transportation commissions and business leaders.

Here's my gripe that I'd like the city to look at (And, no, I can't join the task force because I don't live within the city boundaries, as is required by membership rules): Change its meter holidays to conform to federal, state and city holidays. This so that people won't be ticketed on holidays days, like me and others on Presidents Day this past February--a federal, state, and city holiday--when they could have reasonably expected it to be a meter holiday. With city leaders saying that a new parking management plan should not be just about making money for the city, the task force could show it means this by adopting meter policies that are more common-sense and less punitive and glaringly money-grubbing.

Applications for the task force are due July 20 and can be obtained via the city's website.

According to the city, the task force will be provided with existing background information for downtown parking strategies, evaluate that information, and further develop strategies to make parking improvements, test those strategies through community outreach meets, and make recommendations to the city council for further action.

The task force will begin meeting in August 2009 and meet once or twice a month over the next six to seven months.