Mayor considers creating Houston parking authority

05:37 PM CST on Wednesday, February 23, 2005

By Doug Miller / 11 News

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Parking in Houston is getting more difficult and more expensive.

"A quarter used to be all day," said Willie Tarver, driver. "Used to put a nickel in for 30 minutes and a dime was an hour."

Now, just as Houston has a Metropolitan Transit Authority and a Houston Port Authority, the mayor's thinking about setting up a Houston parking authority.

"You really need an element, an entity, an authority that focuses strictly on parking, on enforcement, on the meters, making sure that they're all working, responsible for valet zones, cab zones, and enforcements of those ordinances," said Carol Alvarado, Houston Mayor Pro Tem.

A parking authority could take over much of the job now done by the city's municipal courts division, the people who write parking tickets.

And in the shadow of downtown high rises, city officials suggest this authority could build another government-owned parking garage.

The city already runs some garages, like the spaces beneath Tranquility Park.

"It's not clear what the mayor is talking about here, but parking authorities are a widespread function. In fact, I actually looked at the number. Of cities over 100,000, about a third have some type of parking authority," said Bob Stein, KHOU political expert.

This idea is still just that -- an idea, very much in its formative stages. And there are still plenty of unanswered questions, like, 'Who would run this authority?' 'What exactly would it do?' and perhaps most importantly, 'Would it really be an improvement?'

In other words, would it really help with the hassle of downtown parking?