News
November 22, 2010‘Smart’ change in Creek
Denver Daily News, November 22, 2010
By Peter Marcus, DDN Staff Writer
For years, business owners, residents and consumers in Cherry Creek North have told the Denver Daily News that they’d like to treat parking kiosks in the area similar to a scene out of the 1999 hit film “Office Space.”
And while no one has taken the kiosks out back and beaten them with a baseball bat Ń similar to how a copy machine was treated in “Office Space” Ń the general sentiment in Cherry Creek North is “good riddance!”
The city last week completed replacing the parking kiosks with new SmartMeters Ń don’t worry, the new meters won’t outsmart you. SmartMeters are simply traditional parking meters with a bit more of a brain. In other words, they take credit cards, run on solar power, digitally display how much time is left, flash expiration colors for easy enforcement Ń nothing too complicated. You can still drop a quarter in the meter and walk away.
But that wasn’t the case with the $590,000 worth of kiosks installed by the city in 2004-2005. The kiosks were installed following a push by the Cherry Creek North Business Improvement District to have the machines installed as a means to cut back on employees and construction workers in the area taking prime spots in front of businesses.
People complained that the kiosks were complicated to operate and generally inconvenient. Business owners spoke of a drop in business, consumers said they were trying to avoid Cherry Creek, and residents said friends stopped visiting them out of fear of receiving an expensive parking ticket.
The city looked into a few alternatives, including testing a pay-by-phone system that proved to be unpopular. Another idea was to offer in-car meters, but there were problems with that as well. Another idea was something called “smart cards,” where people would have been able to load any denomination of money on the cards to make paying for kiosk parking a faster process, but a system with the kiosks was never implemented.
An addition to the SmartMeters is that they are able to accept the SmartCards, which are available at King Soopers locations.
So, five years later, Cherry Creek is back to meters, and the city completed its $380,000 installation last week. Daelene Mix, spokeswoman for Public Works, said the meters will pay for themselves through revenue generated.
Meanwhile, business owners are literally ecstatic that the kiosks have been replaced. David Ellis, owner of David Ellis Jewelers, 2640 E. 3rd Ave., says the new meters will absolutely increase foot traffic in the area.
“They were terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrrible,” he said of the old kiosks. “They just didn’t work, they were no good, people couldn’t find them, people didn’t know how to use them, they had to have an education. When people are shopping retail electively, they don’t want an education.”
“Cherry Creek’s finally getting meter’s, and not baloney kiosks that were just ridiculous,” Ellis continued.
Even the Cherry Creek North BID, which pushed for the kiosks in the first place, agreed on Friday that the meters were going to be a positive change for the neighborhood.
“Cherry Creek North is going to be an even better and more convenient destination as a result É” said Julie Bender, president and chief executive of the Cherry Creek North BID.
Bender declined to comment on why the BID pushed for the kiosks in the first place, pointing out that she was not with the organization at the time. She says her group recently asked the city to replace the kiosks with the SmartMeters.
“We believe that the SmartMeters will make Cherry Creek North a better and more convenient destination for shopping,” said Bender.
Tim Doherty, owner of Syrup, 300 Josephine St., agrees that the new SmartMeters will be a boost for businesses in the area and add convenience for consumers.
“You’ll get more cars than you would with the kiosks,” he said. “This is definitely going to help business.”
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