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The kiosks will eventually break down, or run out of paper or ink.

The Alameda Sun received a copy of this letter.

Mayor, members of city council, and staff:

I am outraged and appalled that you would choose to begin the streetscape project at this time of year. The holiday shopping season is critically important to virtually all the retail merchants in the Park Street Business District. We depend on the income we make in the fourth quarter to make our year a profi table one. Now with this action, you have endangered the viability and livelihood of many merchants on Park Street.

How critical is the fourth quarter to a retail merchant? In the fourth quarter of last year, sales tax collected in 'General Consumer Goods' category for the city was $301,999. For the third quarter of last year, it was only $215,153. That's an increase in sales of 40 percent for the fourth quarter.

These fi gures are from Exhibit 2, Agenda Item #5-C from the Sept.

20 City Council meeting. Why would you jeopardize our livelihood and your sales tax revenues by choosing to undertake this project now? Do you really expect our customers to put up with the closures, construction and lack of parking to shop on Park Street between now and Christmas? Is the city so well off that it can afford to kiss off the sales tax revenue generated during the holidays?

Your published timeline shows completion of work for this year on my block on Dec. 12, or later due to weather and other unforeseen delays. I understand the project is already almost a week behind schedule, which puts the stopping date at around Dec. 19. This is crazy!

Please, pull the plug on this project now, and continue after the fi rst of the year. Let us have a chance at a good holiday season.

There is so much ill will toward Park Street now because of the tree massacre that it's going to be diffi cult to attract shoppers to Park Street anyway.

I hate that you will be replacing the parking meters with kiosks like Oakland has. Why would you do this? Do you think that it makes collections easier? Have you asked the people that do the work in the city what they think of this? You certainly might save a little labor on the collections technician, but consider parking enforcement costs, lost revenue when the machines break down and the ire of our customers that have to use the machines.

Yes, it's a good thing that they will accept credit cards, but other than that, I can see no benefi t to the use of the kiosks for a user. The city will glean additional revenue because you can't leave excess time on a meter. Enforcement costs will probably go up because the technicians will have to walk along the cars to see in to the dashboard and read the time on the receipt, instead of just looking at a meter head from their vehicle. If you don't have the technicians walking, as soon as employees, upstairs apartment residents and some customers realize you aren't enforcing, they'll become scoffl aws, not pay for parking, and take up space that other valued customers could use.

The kiosks will eventually break down, or run out of paper or ink. When they do, you will lose revenue for an entire block instead of just one parking space until they are fi xed. How expensive will it be to maintain and repair the kiosks? Have you considered the inconvenience to shoppers? If a woman with small children wants to park, and the only spot she can fi nd is one that's a half block from the kiosk, what does she do? Leave the kids locked in the car while she deals with paying for parking? Haul the kids with her to the kiosk and back again?

How about an elderly shopper that might use a walker or other aid to getting around? They might fi nd a spot right in front of the store where they want to shop, but will have to walk a half block to parking, then a half block back to their car.

I can understand you wanting to get away from the old meter heads; I'm sure that they are pretty much at the end of their wear cycle. Won't you consider using two-headed meters, or use a two-headed meter that accepts a credit card?

I've seen those around. That would be easier to enforce from the street, would also offer the convenience of paying with a credit card, and not having to walk a block for the privilege of paying for parking.

And, when they break down, you'll only lose revenue from two spaces instead of the entire block. By the way, when the kiosk breaks down, how will your parking enforcement people know it's broken, and not just a forgetful shopper?

— Al Wright Owner/Operator Raintree Studios