Add fixing broken parking meters to new Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty's to-do list

This H Street parking meter, which is missing its cash box and many similarly broken meters, is a green light for free parking and lost revenues to pay debt obligations on the Golden 1 Center. |  

By D.A. Gougherty |  

Yesterday, Kevin McCarty took his oath as Sacramento's 57th mayor. As the new mayor, McCarty faces many challenges, not the least of which is resolving the city's lingering homelessness.



On a visit to Downtown Sacramento today, another problem for the first-term mayor revealed itself: several broken parking meters.

As part of my regular business, I visit Downtown Sacramento at least once a week, including the Superior Court, the Sacramento County Administration building, and the Hall of Justice facility on 6th Street. On my last few visits, I noticed a few broken parking meters.

Today, however, there were more than a few broken cash boxes on the meters. Every meter's cash box on the north side of H Street between 7th and 8th was missing. While I usually feed the meter with an ATM card, I used coins today to see what happened.

To my surprise, the coin was accepted, registered the purchased time, and then dropped to the bottom of the cash box where it once was. All of the coins were there for recovery.

Going through the security check at the county administration building, I asked the security guard and Sacramento County Deputy Sheriff what was happening with the meters. The deputy sheriff nonchalantly claimed that homeless individuals were breaking into the meters to steal the coins.

When I asked about all the surveillance cameras near the court building, the security guard and deputy sheriff essentially shrugged their shoulders. Now, we can't say for certain who stole from the cash boxes, but we can say there are scores on broken cash box meters.

On a postive note for the city of Sacramento, the ATM/Credit card functions are in order. Losing revenue from parking meters is no small matter given that parking fees are used to pay for the city's portion of debt used to build the Golden 1 arena, home of the Sacramento Kings. 

Last year, parking fees fell short of projections, forcing the city to dip into the general fund to meet debt obligations. These broken meters will not help matters.  

There are several ways to interpret the broken parking meters, but we will leave that to our readers' discretion. Aside from losing revenue, it does provide an opportunity for free parking in Downtown Sacramento.

As to whether or not I reappropriated the coin that dropped to the space where the cash box once was, I reference the late folk singer Harry Chapin's 1972 song Taxi. Toward the end of the six-minute plus song, the narrator sings, "She handed me twenty dollars for a two-fifty fare, she said, Harry, keep the change. . . "

If you know the narrator's reaction to accepting a big tip from a former lover, you will know what I did with the coins!





You may not like us, but here you are! Follow us on Threads @ElkGroveNewsnet Follow us on Twitter @ElkGroveNews Follow us on Spoutible @ElkGroveNews
Follow us on YouTube @ElkGroveNews
Copyright by Elk Grove News © 2024. All rights reserved.