The parking meters in downtown question MUST NOT be addressed in isolation from other forces at work in Salem.
For example, take Salem's new-ish Peak Sports on State St., a terrific addition to downtown and to Salem. Peak's lease rate, like all rents downtown, was negotiated and set without meter paid parking on the horizon. Add metered parking to the mix while the rents stay fixed under the leases and you have a great recipe for even more empty storefronts in Salem, which is already precariously close to tipping into a vicious cycle of decline.
Peak now faces REI in the hideous sprawl plex called Keizer Station, in an environment where all retail stores, including both Peak and REI, are struggling to adapt to the cut-throat competition of Amazon. Amazon's whole business model is exploiting the tax advantage it gains by not paying any, while it enjoys the use of the roads everywhere but pays nothing to maintain them.
Now add parking meters in downtown Salem only to that equation.
In a dynamic environment characterized by intense competition, very small factors that make one business less fit relative to competitors can have outsized consequences because our economic system is increasingly winner-take-all.
http://jonathanturley.org/2014/08/24/the-end-of-brick-and-mortar-retail/
"Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay."
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