California Tax Dollars at Work

Councilman Jeff Prang talks to Time Warner Cable Local Edition host Brad Pomerance about the state budget crisis and how it affects local cities, like West Hollywood.

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"We're going to have homeless people. We're going to have inmates being released from prisons. We're going to have seniors and the disabled who don't have any services and you can't just abandon these people so it's going to cost cities more money."

Meanwhile in that very same city...



"The expansion of City Hall and the building of the new automated parking garage not only will provide for a better experience to residents and visitors, it will also provide for much needed additional parking while reducing the carbon footprint that a "traditional" parking structure would generate otherwise," added Mayor Duran.

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Operationally, automated parking garages provide customers with a valet-like parking experience...

$2.6 million / 200 cars = $13,000 per car

Transportation Cost and Benefit Analysis II – Parking Costs

* Shoup documents construction costs ranging from $13,712 to $31, 500 per space at a California university between 1990 and 2002. He notes that most spaces in parking structures cost more than the cars that occupy them.

* Shoup calculates that, including on-street parking, US cities have an average of about of eight parking spaces for each car.

* For each dollar motorists spend directly on their car somebody bears more than 50¢ in parking costs.

* Users pay directly for only about a quarter of total parking costs. The rest are borne indirectly through taxes, reduced wages, and additional retail prices.

* Rideshare passengers, buses, trolleys, walking and telework incur no user parking costs.