RSS FeedDDOT Introduces Valet Parking Permits
Courtesy of the Washington Post, we hear that DDOT has announced a new valet parking permit and regulation where restaurants can pay as little as 50 cents per hour for a 20 foot stretch of street parking. What a deal!
Of course, there are many details and additional fees that need to be considered. And those details are found in this 16 page PDF document.
Some highlights:
- Only businesses that offer valet service 4 or more days a week are required to obtain a permit and follow the rules (3 days or less of valet service, and none of these rules apply)
- In the Central Business District (basically all of Penn Quarter), valet stands must not reduce the pedestrian walkway to a clear unobstructed width of less than 8 ft.
We are curious if the introduction of this permit will result in a restaurant “land grab” of our parking lanes or if it will simply deter restaurants from providing valet service for more than 3 days/nights a week?
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Comments
here’s the link for the WUSA (Channel 9) story Cheryl references.
I welcome this. I know many restaurants already monopolize the street parking for free, charging customers to park their cars in free public spaces. In front of my building, once the valet service starts, they simply double park the valeted cars waiting for sidewalk spaces to free up (free parking after 6:30), so they can eventually monopolize the entire block of street parking, even though they are supposed to park the cars in a garage. This amounts to charging customers $10 to park their car in a free public space on the same block, which I believe is illegal, or at least should be if it isn’t, hence the need to at least get a permit to charge people $10 for a free public space. This sounds to me like it will be cheaper for the valet than parking the car in a garage, but more expensive than breaking their voluntary agreement with their neighbors, which is what the valet outside my building is doing
Even if they don’t have enough cars for all of the spaces, they will take up to spaces with a car so they don’t lose the space, therefore preventing others from using the public space. I have even seen them move up a car taking two spaces, and ask the customer to pull their car into the freed space. When the custom complained about being charged $10 for that, the valet just smiled.
Finally, it’s also dangerous because since they double park multiple cars so often for so long, it creates traffic, honking, and blocks the view of drivers trying to get out of the building’s parking garage safely.
But there is problem w/ valets blocking traffic-eg Rasika valets not moving cars so one or both lanes cause traffic jams , especially during Verizon ctr events. Valet lane would block less traffic.
Well lets see…no taxes will be raised on the middle class and jobs will be saved…now thats change we can believe in. Its like this…if struggling restuarants are now made to pay the feds for spots on streets that belong to the people what do you all think will happen….? Its not brain surgery…some valetsw ill lose their jobs and the price of valet will sky rocket….but then when one has a comfy little flat in penn quarter its real easy for their bleeding hearts to foget about people who actually have to work for a living. First, only an idiot would buy a condo in Penn Quarter. A half a million for a studio?…give me a break. Secondly, stop the hypocrisy…when al of us sleep at night we all know this is a big scam…so as the businesses close around your sacred and secluded closet dont even bother screaming about it…its the change you guys got hypnotized by.
When the valet company signs a contract to park cars that states they will use a parking garage (which they have some agreement with or own), their business plan is in place. Most of the valets are run by a different company than the restaurant itself. Using public spaces instead of the garage space the business plan was based on just means a higher profit than anticipated or less time running to the garage to fetch cars, which I have to think is why they use the public spaces. I don’t see how sticking to the original agreement would cause valet prices to “skyrocket”, unless their original plan was flawed.
As for the restaurants themselves, I don’t think valet parking has that much to do with whether they are struggling or not. I am thinking their lease has a far higher impact on profit margins. The restaurants people love seem to do well, with or without the parking. Others struggle. That’s the way capitalism works everywhere in America, and I don’t think that’s changing. But hopefully some of those restaurant workers and valet employees can get healthcare sometime soon. That’s the change I think they would love to see.
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A manager from Zengo was on the news last night complaining about DC Government and the new structure. She said something about reducing Valet services and perhaps giving restaurant patrons vouchers for reduced parking in neighborhood parking lots instead. I tuned in after she started speaking so didn’t hear what she objected to besides cost. Doug Jemal ended the segment by remiding the city that at one time there wasn’t any activity at night in PQ and this would hurt business or something to that effect.