Parking Enforcement in downtown Bethesda

[Anonymous]

Can I just vent a bit? So all non-essential businesses are closed, the MVA, the parks, the schools, etc...but I still see the little white parking enforcement cars driving around Bethesda ticketing?!? This is so MoCo, literally. It's not like there are major parking problems, the garages are all open as are the streets, very few cars other than those picking food up. When did this become so essential?

[Anonymous]

I suppose it keeps them on payroll, which is good. They probably have very little work to do.

[Anonymous]

There's plenty of parking, as you say. So park your car legally, and then you don't have to worry about getting a parking ticket.

[Anonymous]

It’s not about parking legally, the point is that while MoCo is shut down with our dear leader “guessing” that we’ll open soon. So my question is why is this considered so essential???? You don’t seem to be worried about their health or the spread of Covid. If there are issues, the police who are considered essential should deal with this. Do they need this ticket revenue so badly cause that’s just sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not about parking legally, the point is that while MoCo is shut down with our dear leader “guessing” that we’ll open soon. So my question is why is this considered so essential???? You don’t seem to be worried about their health or the spread of Covid. If there are issues, the police who are considered essential should deal with this. Do they need this ticket revenue so badly cause that’s just sad.

How does parking enforcement endanger the health of the people writing tickets? And, if it doesn't, why shouldn't there be parking enforcement?

[Anonymous]

The reason is this -- Bethesda Urban Partnership is funded from parking revenues. They made a deal with the county that they will maintain the downtown (clean streets and sidewalks, pick up trash, plant flowers) which the county would normally do. In exchange, they get the parking revenue from Bethesda.

They have a huge incentive to increase parking revenue. That's why paid parking lasts until 10pm in Bethesda, even on weeknights.

And that's why Bethesda UP always has nice, shiny new red trucks in their fleet. They have the money to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reason is this -- Bethesda Urban Partnership is funded from parking revenues. They made a deal with the county that they will maintain the downtown (clean streets and sidewalks, pick up trash, plant flowers) which the county would normally do. In exchange, they get the parking revenue from Bethesda.

They have a huge incentive to increase parking revenue. That's why paid parking lasts until 10pm in Bethesda, even on weeknights.

And that's why Bethesda UP always has nice, shiny new red trucks in their fleet. They have the money to do it.

Wow, why would MoCo agree to this deal? Seems to not be in the interest of residents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reason is this -- Bethesda Urban Partnership is funded from parking revenues. They made a deal with the county that they will maintain the downtown (clean streets and sidewalks, pick up trash, plant flowers) which the county would normally do. In exchange, they get the parking revenue from Bethesda.

They have a huge incentive to increase parking revenue. That's why paid parking lasts until 10pm in Bethesda, even on weeknights.

And that's why Bethesda UP always has nice, shiny new red trucks in their fleet. They have the money to do it.

I've not actually heard this and your post isn't really clear on what parking revenue they benefit from.

Montgomery County loses money on its parking garages so the only way they make money from meter revenue is if they also are not covering the cost of building and maintaining the garages which is certainly possible.

And the county issues the parking tickets so I'd be very surprised to learn they are somehow segregating the revenue from Bethesda tickets and funneling it back into Bethesda only.

In either case it is a bad arrangement because it creates an incentive for whoever gets this money to try to get as many people as possible to drive into Bethesda while a progressive county should actually be doing the opposite and encouraging people to get to Bethesda via other means.

But of course people in Bethesda are only progressives in spirit and not in action and will happily drive their imported SUV's a few blocks to get a coffee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can I just vent a bit? So all non-essential businesses are closed, the MVA, the parks, the schools, etc...but I still see the little white parking enforcement cars driving around Bethesda ticketing?!? This is so MoCo, literally. It's not like there are major parking problems, the garages are all open as are the streets, very few cars other than those picking food up. When did this become so essential?

I don't know but I bet what the parking enforcement folks were doing in Bethesda was a lot more essential than whatever you were doing - do you want to enlighten us?

So long as you are willing to walk a block it is not hard to find parking in Bethesda even when it is busy because there is so much of it and I can't imagine it is hard at all to find it right now so just park your car legally and be glad you live in a county that for some perverse reason spends tens of millions every year to subsidize lazy drivers.

[Anonymous]

It's all on their website:
https://www.bethesda.org/bethesda/about-bup

Here's the key information:

Established by Montgomery County in 1994, Bethesda Urban Partnership, Inc. (BUP) is a downtown management organization that maintains and markets downtown Bethesda. The organization was developed to promote downtown Bethesda as a desirable place to live, work and visit as well as foster a community that features restaurants, retailers, arts venues and more.About BUP

The BUP team includes more than 35 employees working in marketing, maintenance, transportation and administration who produce cultural events and community festivals and attend to landscaping and maintenance needs. BUP also manages Bethesda Transportation Solutions (BTS), the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, and the Bethesda Circulator as well as the non-profit art spaces, Gallery B and Studio B.

BUP is operated by an 11-member Board of Directors comprising residents, businesses and developers appointed by the County Executive. The organization is funded primarily by revenue generated from the Bethesda Parking Lot District fees, in addition to the commercial Urban District property tax. Private sponsors partner with BUP on events such as Taste of Bethesda and the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Wow, why would MoCo agree to this deal? Seems to not be in the interest of residents.

Because it means MoCo doesn't have to take care of Bethesda, using unionized and expensive county employees. The benefit to Bethesda is they can focus the money on Bethesda-specific efforts, like running the free Circulator shuttle bus (the best thing they offer I think) as well as various events.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
And the county issues the parking tickets so I'd be very surprised to learn they are somehow segregating the revenue from Bethesda tickets and funneling it back into Bethesda only.

The tickets are issued by parking officers and come from MoCo. Just Bethesda has a set of people whose job is solely to do parking enforcement. In many (but not all) other parts of MoCo, parking enforcement is done by police and they don't waste their time on it unless it's really egregious.

It's easy to keep track of Bethesda-specific parking ticket income -- the tickets are generated by a ticket-writing machine and it knows the location of the infraction.

[Anonymous]

I wonder why this is bothering anyone right now.

Don't you want to keep people off the dole? It's not as dangerous as being a cashier or delivery person, since these parking enforcement people don't actually have a lot of work right now...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
And the county issues the parking tickets so I'd be very surprised to learn they are somehow segregating the revenue from Bethesda tickets and funneling it back into Bethesda only.

The tickets are issued by parking officers and come from MoCo. Just Bethesda has a set of people whose job is solely to do parking enforcement. In many (but not all) other parts of MoCo, parking enforcement is done by police and they don't waste their time on it unless it's really egregious.

It's easy to keep track of Bethesda-specific parking ticket income -- the tickets are generated by a ticket-writing machine and it knows the location of the infraction.

Well thanks for the clarifying posts.

Makes sense to me to keep the revenue local.

[Anonymous]

This is SO MoCO to complain about.