FAYETTEVILLE — Dickson Street restaurant owners said the one-month-old paid parking program is killing business.
Dickson Street Merchants Association members said weekday traffic dropped off substantially. Many restaurants are reporting a 30 percent to 40 percent drop in sales, they said at the group’s meeting Thursday.
Restaurateurs want the City Council to restructure the Dickson Street area plan so parking would only be paid on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings.
“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of people sitting in this room right now whose cash registers have stopped spinning,” said Neal Crawford, owner of the long-running Jose’s Restaurant.
If the City Council doesn’t restructure the parking program soon, the merchants said they are looking into what it would take to put the issue to a public vote.
The stance Thursday afternoon was a clear about-face for a number of business owners who were strong supporters of the city’s attempt to better manage parking in the crowded district and raise money needed to build a parking deck.
“We are admitting that we could not have been more wrong on the impact this is having on our businesses,” said Julie Sill, co-owner of Common Grounds and Hog Haus Brewing Company.
The parking program, which brought in $72,000 in the first month, is set to be reviewed by the City Council in 60 days. That’s too long, merchants said. They want the council to review the program at Tuesday’s regular meeting.
WebWatch
For an online interactive map of parking in the Dickson Street and Fayetteville downtown areas, go to http://www.nwaonline.com/faypark
City officials said they will review the first month’s data to see which days and times are low-traffic periods and will consider modifications to increase activity during those times.
“I’m sure there’s some issues down here, and we need to go back and look at what needs changing,” Mayor Lioneld Jordan said after the meeting.
Kyle Cook, an alderman representing the area, said he’s inclined to wait until the appointed time to review the program.
“I still say, I want to wait and look at it when we have it scheduled,” Cook said. “But I think we’re going to have to do some tweaking, obviously.”
The businesses proposed what they called a “compromise.” They suggest the city charge for parking only from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Parking on Dickson Street itself would be free 24 hours a day. They said daytime and weekday business has nearly evaporated.
Many of the merchants in the packed room said they are fine with delaying the construction of a parking deck if it means their business rebounds.
“It makes it futile for us to even need a parking deck anymore,” said Kari Larson, co-owner of Common Grounds.