Is DOT Destroying Kings Highway Businesses?

Over the next few weekends, Department of Transportation is installing 66 new Muni-Meters along Kings Highway and its side streets, but residents say meter rules need to change to accommodate shoppers.

“In a shopping district you should be able to shop,” Phil Nuzzo, Kings Highway Business Improvement District’s executive director, told Courier-Life. “True shopping includes browsing and multiple purchases at multiple locations, and it can’t be accomplished in one hour.”

Nuzzo has sent a letter to DOT officials requesting one more hour be added to the maximum time limit, so shoppers can walk the strip for two hours before rushing back to their cars.

“I can safely say that no letter I’ve written in almost 25 years of doing this would have such a dramatic economic impact,” Nuzzo said.

But, like so many other things, the city’s response was merely to say they “will look into it.”

The logic behind such short time limits is to free up parking spaces quickly so more consumers can access the shopping district’s main drag. But the hassle may actually be driving customers away.

What do you think? Will adding time to the meters be Kings Highway’s economic boom or bust?