Businesses need to be realistic. If their employees flood all the free parking around town, then there is no space left for customers and that isn't going to end well. Businesses need to think of ways to get their employees to work other than single occupancy vehicles. Taxpayer subsidized parking has to be the most expensive and least desirable solution.

We desperately need to put in parking lots near freeway onramps and designated shuttles to downtown and business areas.

We do not have a parking policy in Palo Alto. Instead, we do have an anti-parking policy and none of these permit suggestions will help.

Most of those driving to work in Palo Alto do so because there is very little choice as an alternative. Not everyone lives near a Caltrain station and it won't help people from EPA or from Cupertino, for example.

Unless public transportation improves across county borders and in real terms to give people a true alternative to solo driving in an efficient manner, people are just not going to take a bus that snakes around neighborhoods and doesn't get them to where they need to go in a timely manner.

No worries. Politicians like Liz Kniss will continue voting for more office buildings that exacerbate the parking problem. Drain the swamp!

There is simply no excuse for business owners not being aware of this development.

I'm looking forward to everyone finding a good compromise solution here, because we all in this together. The residents of neighborhoods near business districts enjoy the benefits of living near amenities. The workers of those stores and restaurants need parking. And the office workers in those districts support the stores and keep them viable. In today's Palo Alto, I'm not sure this stool stands without all three.

The article reports:
"Ekwall and Mollie Stone's manager John Garcia were the only people the Weekly spoke with who said they were aware of the city plan. (Of the 342 city surveys sent to businesses last fall, just 37 were returned.)"

The above quote reminds me of all the articles that reported about the clear-cut of trees from a few years ago and presumably, all the years of planning that likely led up to a big reconfiguration of that district.

Did most California Avenue owners and managers yawn and go back to sleep then too, in spite of being informed, and perhaps even asked to take part in the planning?

That part of Palo Alto had been long neglected. There was much discussion in council(s) about what was to happen, for interested parties to be aware, if they wanted it.

But many merchants claimed they were never told anything about that either, and were taken by surprise, when work began. This has become a pattern.

Norman Beamer is correct. There is no excuse for businesses not to be aware of this newest development. 342 surveys from the city, and only 37 surveys returned?

It's time for the resident's comfort to be respected. Wait until the new police building development is finished, and parking will be even worse there then, than it is now.

My family shops there. We like the merchants and shops that are left. But the sooner residents are protected from further adverse effects due to parking, the better it will be for everyone. Residents have a valid concern.

I find it a bit mind boggling that people like Norman Beamer and Long-time Resident think there is "no excuse" for businesses not knowing about the parking proposal.

Because businesses are so carefree that they have all this free time to monitor the goings on of City Council, right?

I wonder if all the critics of these businesses have ever done the work of running one.

As for me, I enjoy having them here, and I'm not quite so eager to chase them out of town.

DUH.....too much growth and not enough foresight ...or shall we say foresight was there but many who would benefit would rather reap the spoils and have
the workers suffer

The good news here is that there are still businesses on Cal Ave after the assault on retail by the Kniss/Scharff Council. Apparently, they would like to finish them off.

Palo Alto is doing its best for the Number 1 stupidest city in Bay Area. Create a problem and heck with the residents.

There's one simple answer. Because parking is such a hassle and will continue to be, just DON'T shop on California Avenue!!

This is just another case of the Council keeping things hidden until the population, Resident or Business hears about it TOO LATE to get informed and maybe talk about a difference of opinion

It seems so obvious that people are not abandoning their cars for public transportation or bikes or walking. If we were, by now the parking issue would be improving at least a little. Instead, it is getting worse. When I read about the high density building proposed for the VTA lot I thought that when the time comes, one way to test the PTOD model is to not sell any parking permits to residents of that property but to instead let those who are so convinced that fewer cars will be associated with that building (and others like it) assume ALL the risk and inconvenience of that model instead of imposing it on neighboring businesses and residents. I think it would also be helpful for high level City Staff (e.g. Keene and Gitelman) and City Council to experiment with not having permitted parking for a 3 month period so that they can fully appreciate the impact of decisions that are being made. Getting around this town and parking is, simply, a deterrent to supporting local businesses. Especially during daytime hours.

Failing to advise those effected by proposed changes has become the standard operating procedure of this city as it tries to sneak through unwanted changes. If they'd given the merchants and residents advance notice of this proposed change, they might have had people questioning their methods for counting parked cars and their assumptions on when those cars leave.

Fortunately our neighborhood had one alert resident who went door-to-door handing out flyers warning about proposed changes and notifying us of a meeting since the city couldn't/wouldn't/didn't. 70 of us showed up, questioned their assumptions and at a got most of changes ditched.

It's farcical that we the residents and taxpayers have to be so vigilant against our highly paid bureaucrats.

PS: Remind me again why we spent $7,000,000 to "revitalize" a business district only to kill it for residents and shoppers and merchants.

Not mentioned in this is the number of savvy Stanford employees who park as close to the campus as possible and then either pick up the campus shuttle to take them into the center of campus and the hospital, or take a pleasant 15 minute walk to their office.

Permission from the county to add additional buildings on campus has been predicated on the University not adding any additional car trips onto campus. The obvious answer for Stanford was to jack up the parking fees employees are charged and replace what was parking with new buildings. After Stanford first started charging employees for parking, late 1970's I seem to remember.

Over the following decades as employees figured out that parking in the adjacent neighborhoods and having a pleasant walk to work . In College Terrace quite a few employees could be seen parking and unloading their bikes, or simply kept a bicycle chained to a street tree for added convenience.

Then Stanford added the shuttle so, when the University is charging about $400 for an annual parking permit, it was a no brainer to park in College Terrace and walk across Stanford Avenue to pick up the shuttle, running on a regular schedule about every 10 or 15 minutes.

Stanford also increased the parking fees for Stanford students in Escondido Village, a further incentive to park their cars in nearby neighborhoods, plus all the additional students living in the new highrises.

Yet in this discussion the California Avenue employees are blamed with no mention of Stanford's role in this.

In downtown PA, for every free transit pass made available by the Transportation Management Association (TMA), a downtown worker has asked to use one to get to work instead of driving in a car. What if the TMA were to expand its scope to include California Avenue businesses and Town & Country Village? Transit options aren't perfect but there is demand for transit if it is subsidized. Why not subsidize transit over free parking for workers?

Remember that when the TMA expands its coverage, you the resident / taxpayer will be paying people to commute into and out of Palo Alto. This also includes city employees who love to preach to US to get out of OUR cars.

How special that we get to pay to have our quality of life undermined. How special to see all the reserved parking spots for city employees and City Council members. Since the city and the CC members love to preach to us about biking and public transit, maybe they could follow their own advice and be forced to bike and/or take public transit.

Yes, the Marguerite is a shuttle system that works. It picks people up at train stations and takes them where they need to go every 15 minutes or so.

Do we have a similar shuttle at Cal Ave or PA Caltrain, or the freeway off ramps? No. Unless we put in some sensible alternatives to solo driving, the solo drivers will not go away.

We don't even have any type of school shuttles that comprehensively serve students!!

The retail stores on California Ave are having a rough time as evident by the closing of the office supply store , the camera store, Radio Shack, and Accent Arts. The internet, traffic and parking problems are few of the reasons why they struggle. The city could alleviate one problem by making more short time parking available to shoppers. Now the prospective shopper must round the block several times before finding any spot reasonably close to the store he wants to visit. Short time parking would allow the customer to park run into the store, make the purchase and leave. Why is the city not helping out the retailer ? Soon the street will be Restaurant Row and nothing else.

Other cities on the peninsula are providing short term customer parking by installing parking meters. Parking costs are minimal (like 25 cents for 30 minutes), but the time limits are strictly enforced. Making people go through motions of putting their coins in the parking meter seems to encourage them to take the time limits seriously. I am really surprised that Palo Alto has not gone this route yet.

The new parking regulations will kill local businesses. Palo Alto residents are deterred from shopping downtown or on Californis Ave by the 2 hour limit for a wide area around where they want to shop. What the City ones with the parking regulation , including special permits for employees pushes out Palo Alto residents of other areas. We would like to shop downtown. W e have shopped downtown and are now being pushed into one of the shopping centers. This will kill downtown service businesses

Well, there go the last few shops and services on CA Ave that remain. If shoppers and those using the service shops cannot park for the necessary time they will be forced to go elsewhere. What will be left if a few second rate restaurants and grocery stores with parking lots.
I think all City employees, council members, and advisors should be required to leave their cars at home. Maybe that will turn on a light of sense for them.
Obviously city rulers have decided that they prefer tech companies to shops and shoppers. Shouldn't the tech companies be in the industrial park?

I never have traffic or parking problems because I ride my bike. We need more public transportation and more efficient public transportation, and we need to get out of our cars. Our traffic and parking problems will only increase until we have more and better transportation options. E.g. There is only 1 train per hour on weekends and if you transfer from BART to Caltrain at Millbrae, be prepared to sit in the rain and wind for up to an hour! Ridiculous!!! It should be simple, quick and reasonably comfortable to get from any city on the peninsula to SFO -- but no -- it's a pain in the ass so everyone drives. We must invest in public transportation infrastructure.

Looks like we will have to get our taxes done somewhere outside Palo Alto as trying to drop things up or pick things up on the way to our final destination is no longer an option in Palo Alto. Parking in Cal Ave for a 2 minute errand is already impossible during the day. Many of us do not have the luxury of enough time to ride a bike from home to deliver something then ride a bike home before getting on with the remainder of the day's errands.