PRNC president proposes removal of the new parking kiosks in Point Richmond

   POINT RICHMOND - The outgoing president of the Point Richmond Neighborhood Council proposed Monday that the parking kiosks installed on Park Place late Thursday should be removed.
      In a posting on Nextdoor, David Schoenthal offered a six-point "road map" for calming residents who have nearly unanimously reacted negatively to the parking machines.
     His first bullet point says,"Have Parkeon immediately remove the kiosks."

One of kiosks was vandalized sometime Sunday
(Photo by Catherine Montalbo)

     The newly installed parking kiosks touched off a lengthy (and continuing) set of comments and responses on the social media site. Most of the commenters take issue with the unannounced installation of the machines as well as the idea of paid parking at all on Park Place, Washington Avenue and Richmond Avenue.
   The kiosks were installed only on Park Place as the first step in a paid-parking pilot project that has been the subject of discussions at both the PRNC and the Point Richmond Business Association since last fall. (See Point Richmond paid parking pilot - Oct. 27 2017)
     Although the kiosks are in place, they are not dispensing actual parking permits yet.
     The kiosks were installed by the Parkeon Company, a multi-national corporation that provides similar equipment worldwide for off and on-street parking as well as transit stops.
     Neither the PRNC or the PRBA formally endorsed the kiosks, though they have been mentioned by city staff at various public meetings as being part of a paid parking experiment. The installation came as a surprise to a number of city officials, including Richmond Mayor Tom Butt - a resident of Point Richmond.
     Schoenthal's other five road map points were:

     • Convene a new neighborhood colloborative solutions workshops focused on parking

     • Generate ideas

     • Recommend ideas to Planning Commission/City Council

     • If there are pilots/studies to be done, collect data

     • Come back and agree what should be done

     "There was a mistake done, let's learn from it," Schoenthal said.

   Deneé Evans of Richmond Parking Services is scheduled to speak at the PRNC meeting Wednesday, March 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the Pt. Richmond Community Center. She will also be speaking at the Point Richmond Business Association the following day at noon at the Hotel Mac.