Some Lucid Thoughts on the Meal Tax & Parking Fees

They say that when someone is about to die after a long illness, they clean themselves up, start to do a flurry of activities…and then drop dead!      

All of a sudden, after getting nothing of any significance for a long time, we get some great and well-thought out blogs and it worries me.     Don’t die on me, Tom!

But just before he puts the tulip on his chest, let me say that he has some very lucid arguments concerning the meal tax and the parking fees.       People come to Newburyport for a lot of different reasons than if they go to the commercial strip on Storey Avenue or the Loop or to any large mall.      No where near except in Portsmouth can you obtain beautiful and inviting restaurants than in our City.        No where can they get the charm and sense of history and scenery than in our downtown.     It is hard to put it into words but you can actually ‘feel’ the experience when you cross the border into our town.       As much as the Olive Garden (at the Loop) can exude charm from its interior, it can never blot out the fact that it’s in the middle of a parking lot in front of a strip mall.

That is why Newburyport is priceless and in which our economy is based on heritage tourism and all the ramifications that come from it.

But as much as new restaurants are popping up here and there and the mood is upbeat, we need to not get too cocky and proclaim that the detractors of the meals tax and the paid parking are wrong.       One, the meals tax doesn’t come into play until January.    If the parking plan is approved, it will take six months to a year to find out what kind of true affect it has on the City.      

I of course, see it from a more complex thought process than simply a revenue source or a damaging urge to increase our taxes.

On the meals tax, I see tax revenues that actually go back to the City and in which the spendthrifts from the State House can’t get their grubby hands on it.      I am not pleased that the money is going into the General Fund and urge all parties to make sure a true large portion goes toward our sidewalks.        The same feeling goes toward the paid parking.   I also see something else.      Seeing the paid parking as a necessary step toward a Waterfront Park and the reality of a parking garage.      I may grumble at the parking fees but when I see the long-term benefit; it all makes sense.

Of course, the final verdict will be a year from now.

-P. Preservationist
www.ppreservationist.com