Paid Parking Expanding to Parts of Ohio City Along With Parking App

For years, if not decades, Ohio City's retail corridors were lined with metal parking meters that were infrequently monitored and rarely ticketed by police.

Beginning this month, that's going to change. And additionally, many side streets where parking used to be free will soon cost you to stow your vehicle.

On August 19, the city rolled out its three-step plan to re-do 15 main and side streets in the west side neighborhood with the pay-by-phone alternative. They'll be using ParkMobile, the app-based service that replaced Downtown's archaic pay-by-coin process over the past year or so.

By the end of October, new parking signs and paystations will line the following streets: Lorain Ave., from West 24th to West 50th; Detroit Ave., from West 25th to West 32nd; West 25th, from Monroe Ave. to Jay Ave; Bridge Ave., from West 28th to West 25th; and a handful of others.

Updates, the city said, that are "essential to encourage turnover and ensure there are available, convenient parking spaces in areas with street parking."

"Expanding meter zones to new areas allows the city to update where we want street parking to be convenient and available," that statement continues, "as neighborhoods redevelop and new businesses open."

Deploying any kind of formulaic approach to solving the parking problem in a city like Cleveland is anything but simple. Experts like UCLA professor Donald Shoup have long recommended rules be designed to ensure that 85 percent of an area's spaces be free at any given time—as to signal to incoming (and anxious) drivers that, yes, there is a spot available.

But parking is a touchy subject in Ohio City, where businesses and residents often disagree with how to best deploy rules and regulations to keep a neighborhood catering both to residents and those coming to enjoy the entertainment district happy.

"It's almost like a tug of war," Dre Simmons, the owner of Premier Barber Studio on Detroit Ave., told Scene. "Like, it's only so many residents around and so many small businesses."

Right now, before new paid metering goes in, tenants of The Quarter on Detroit or Intro off West 25th can essentially keep their cars street-side without much threat of a ticket from the Division of Parking. (But they're not immune.) The worry that some like Simmons have is that bolstering paid parking will send visitors undulating further around the neighborhood, taking spaces where residents need to park.

It's kind of how Paul Sherlock, 62, who lives over on Clinton Ave. with his two dogs, feels about the block between West 28th and West 29th— which is to be metered come October. The parking garage of Church + State sits on that block, which Sherlock feels might be enough to harbor visitors but not enough for residents who are used to free parking.

"Whatever the solution is, it shouldn't be paid parking," Sherlock said, stopping on Church Ave. "I don't agree with it."

Others felt that the city's rollout overlaps with a nationwide push for car alternatives.
Spending $2 for two hours of a curbside spot might both deter some from hogging spaces for a day; it could, the idea goes, deter some from driving to Ohio City altogether and instead arriving by foot, bike or bus. And not just out of protest.

"Paid parking discourages people from parking unnecessarily long periods of time in commercial districts," Alex Nosse, the owner of Joy Machines on Detroit Ave., said while repairing a bike. "And that's exactly what we need as a business."

"I think it will tremendously benefit us," Nosse added.

A block down, Matt Ashton, the co-owner of Lekko Coffee, shared the sentiment.

"If people are going to have to pay one way or another, they're going to start asking, like, 'How can we get public transportation to get better?' Which is also a positive thing overall," he said.

Brent Zimmerman, the owner of Saucy Brew Works, agrees.

“We want people to be in our businesses across 29th, Detroit, 25th, wherever you’re talking about in Ohio City spending dollars, but we don't [want] people parking here all day long that do not spend dollars in some of these bars, restaurants, boutiques, salons, whatever it is. It's not good for anybody," he told News 5 Cleveland. Free parking is a tax to society. People don't look at it like that. I do."

The parking pivot in Ohio City foreshadows what City Hall hopes to do with its streets in the future: repave Lorain Ave. into the Lorain Midway, with beautified sidewalks and dedicated cycletrack. (And fewer on-street spots, some bemoan.) And also re-do West 25th with a bus-rapid transit lane, like the Healthline on Euclid Ave.

Yet, the questions run amuck. Will folks at Lutheran Hospital or St. Ignatius—who won't pay that $2—overcrowd the side streets? Will the restaurant crowd actually be deterred?

"It's already so hard here to park, especially in the winter," Joy Harlor, the owner of Le Petit Triangle off Bridge and Fulton, said tending to fried potatoes in her kitchen. "God forbid it's the winter. And God forbid it's snowing. I mean, the streets are closed—there's nowhere to park anyway!"

Harlor sighed. She would trudge on as per usual. "I don't know," she added. "What are you gonna do? I mean, we are a city after all."

Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed