City looks at democratic parking

A small controversy developed when it came out that the ODP reserved a bunch of spaces for themselves:

Columbus public-service officials blocked off 35 meters this summer outside the Ohio Democratic Party’s Downtown headquarters, not as a courtesy to political allies but because a check for more than $7,000 bought the spaces through Election Day.

City officials said yesterday that Democrats didn’t get a special deal. The party paid 6 1/2 times what the meters usually bring in.

But they did acknowledge that selling off public parking for four months at a time is “unreasonably long.” Public Service Director Mark Kelsey plans to investigate, said Mary Carran Webster, the department’s assistant director.

Now Mayor Coleman wants to examine bulk reservations of public street parking.

If Columbus doesn’t have a policy governing who can reserve public parking spaces, Mayor Michael B. Coleman wants one.

And if a policy — new or existing — doesn’t allow the Ohio Democratic Party to buy time in bulk for the spaces outside its Fulton Street headquarters, Coleman said he wants orange “no parking” bags removed from up to 35 meters.

Yeah, I think public spots should remain public. But more importantly, why are all those Dems not taking public transportation? Next thing you’ll tell me is that all their kids are in private schools.

One fun aspect of this-according to the first link- is that if you park in one of those ODP-reserved spaces, no one will know that you’re not supposed to. There’s no list and no one’s enforcing. So go ahead and park there. At your own risk- don’t bring your parking ticket to me!