Parking on many commercial streets and in public parking lots in Bet Shemesh is no longer free. A few business owners tell me they were never polled or consulted. It seems neither neighborhood nor economic impact studies were done prior to the Mayor instituting the pay for parking program. The story is told best in pictures.
The Ramat Bet Shemesh-A commercial center used to be a balagaan with cars. Many drivers double parked, took two spots for one car, cars were left parked for days, and employees of stores and offices in the RBS center captured the spots closest to shopping for themselves. Customers were forced to walk blocks from wherever they found parking. Drivers trying to capture an open parking spot threatened pedestrians. Pay for parking has made the RBS center a more safe place to walk, ride a bike, and park your car without fear of damage from drivers squeezing three cars into two spots.
Here's the problem. The reason fee for parking works so well is because people have an aversion to pay for parking. All ready in their cars they can shop in areas where parking is free. For example, go to Osher Aad for groceries and shop in the adjacent mall stores in the cavernous free lot.
Sales I estimate headed downward in double digits in RBS center stores, since pay for parking was introduced. People are losing their jobs and businesses are moving elsewhere. Neighboring residents have lost their parking on residential streets. Business will only worsen for RBS center shoppers and storeowners when the new RBS mall opens across the street. A parking lot is being built like at BIG with free parking for shoppers.
Finally, the litter, dirt, and deterioration of RBS-A center have exacerbated. This is not only the fault of the City administration. Storeowners and landlords take no responsibility for cleaning the high traffic areas, planting flowers, repairing broken and filthy public benches, sprucing up the place to make shopping a more pleasant experience. If there is a local chamber of commerce it is a failure.
There is a field of study called City Planning that appears lacking as a resource to decision makers and stakeholders the rapidly growing City of Bet Shemesh. Residents and entrepreneurs are the ones who suffer the consequences. There are options to saving commercial city centers as an alternative to the "malling" of Bet Shemesh and slum-like environment.
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