Main Street meters upped to $1.50 an hour

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- After getting an earful at a previous meeting, the

City Council backed down this week from its initial plan to double the

rate of metered parking Downtown.

The council unanimously approved bumping the cost from $1 to $1.50

instead of $2 an hour, which City Councilman Dave Sullivan said was “too

much of a jump.”

The new rate brings Downtown meters in line with those on nearby

streets and along Pacific Coast Highway.

Unlike earlier meetings, no one from the public spoke out before the

vote. Merchant Jinx Verona, owner of the Main Street clothing store Cat

Walk, had planned to voice his protest, but he lost patience -- the

council didn’t address the matter until after 11 p.m.

“I don’t want to sit here and fight with those morons,” he said as he

stormed out of the meeting.

On April 3, the council approved doubling the rate of parking at the

Main Promenade Parking Structure, a public garage on Walnut Avenue and

3rd Street.

City officials said the main impetus for the rise in parking rates is

to help make the city-owned structure profitable for the first time since

its opening in the early 1990s. The money generated from the meters will

help make up for the structure’s losses over the years.