Free Parking Dying Downtown

Uh-oh. It looks like downtown businesses are taking a cue from the city and carving up the cash cow that is parking.

REI today starts charging for parking beyond one hour at its Seattle flagship store, proving once again that as a city grows, fewer things in life are free.

REI's 366-space underground lot had been unregulated ever since the store at 222 Yale Ave. N. opened 10 years ago. For most of those years, the outdoor-gear co-op was pretty much the neighborhood's only bait to draw shoppers. But as South Lake Union's skyline rapidly changed, bringing in more and more workers, visitors and residents, REI has had to rethink its charitable ways.

The new policy targets those in the neighborhood who have abused that generosity, stashing their cars in the lot for free, hour after hour, day after day. The REI lot proved a cheap substitute to parking at a pay lot and a convenient alternative to scouting for free parking along the street, where spaces increasingly are at a premium.

"Our garage is often full even on days of average business," Bobby Mullins, the store's business-operations manager, informed inquiring customers via letter. "We had to choose either free parking for everyone in the neighborhood or parking controls.

Actually I totally understand the need that they have to crack down. Unlike the city of Seattle, REI is a private business. Their parking spots are not a public resource, and they have every right to enforce a "customers only" policy. A "customers only" policy makes sense. A "cars get the heck out of our city" policy, not so much.

(Stuart Eskenazi, Seattle Times , 05.15.2006)