City of Winston-Salem seeking public comment on parking program modernization effort

Since late last year, the City of Winston-Salem has been kicking the tires on the idea of raising parking rates and installing a new pay-by-phone system. City officials are now looking for public comment on the matter. 

The Winston-Salem Department of Transportation is pitching increased enforcement hours, higher rates and a new phone-dependent third-party payment system as some of the aspects of the city's parking program modernization. 

Despite these new changes sounding like drawbacks for the average downtown parker, city officials say the extra money brought in will help close the gap on Winston-Salem’s $700,000 annual parking subsidy. 

Reid Hutchins, transportation operations manager for the city's Department of Transportation, says the changes aim to make parking downtown easier for the people using Winston-Salem’s roughly 3,000 on and off-street parking spots. 

"The messages we’re trying to send are, we’re trying to improve user experience while upgrading our equipment to make the parking process more streamlined for everybody," Hutchins says.

In reference to the hourly parking rate increase from 25 cents to $1.50 for on-street parking, Hutchins says the additional money could eventually contribute toward downtown improvement projects.

"Once we close that gap, we can then think about what does the next steps look like for beautification of the downtown, to put that into another city service, so things upon that line," Hutchins says.

Arte Sparrow, one of a handful of residents who attended a parking modernization informational meeting held at Kaleideum, remembers a time when the $1.25 increase would have had a significant impact on his finances. He worries about the downtown workers in a similar spot.

"My major concern is what impact a $1.50 per hour parking will have on the hourly downtown workers, the people who are bussing tables and mopping floors and washing dishes and can they afford that amount of money to park," Sparrow says.

Residents will have another chance to submit public comments during a second information session next week on Monday, Sept. 23 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the Benton Convention Center.

Santiago Ochoa covers healthcare for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. Follow him on X and Instagram: @santi8a98