Merchants Petition to Remove Paid Parking Meters at Foro Boario
The removal of paid parking around the city, requested the other day by the president of the downtown merchants, Bruno Lunelli, seemed to be just another outburst typical of a category struggling to balance their modest shop budgets. However, the reality proved to be quite different. The shopkeepers have moved from words to action. Tired of being ignored by the municipality, they have started a petition to dismantle the hated parking meters at Foro Boario and the Casinò square. In just a few days, they have already collected over 400 signatures and are confident they will reach three figures.
If some shopkeepers were hesitant to speak out, they quickly changed their minds after witnessing the surprising success of the initiative. “We received confirmation of how angry people are about having to pay 1,200 lire per hour for parking,” comments Gianni Righetti, the popular hairdresser-sailor from via Segantini, with satisfaction. “We didn’t have to push to get people to sign, and no one backed out. The record goes to the clothing store in piazza Tre Novembre: on Saturday alone, they collected over a hundred signatures—about the same number of customers who entered.” After Sunday and Monday closures, the petition will resume today with great enthusiasm. The merchants are confident they will quickly conclude this “anti-tiket” operation.
At the end, they will present to the circuit committee their request to restore free parking at Foro Boario and the square behind the Casinò. All of this, as forecasted, backed by the “weight” of a few thousand citizens. “Of course, we’re not asking to return to free parking without any limits—that’s something we didn’t want in the past either—but only to hourly parking,” emphasizes President Lunelli. “The maximum parking time, in our opinion, should be two hours instead of one. We all know that sixty minutes are often not enough to run multiple errands, and if you exceed that, you get penalized with a fine under your windshield wiper.”
Payment and parking issues
The Assocentro petition has also brought to light the issue of obtaining coins for the parking meters. The “machines” used in Arco accept only metal money, including 1,000 lire coins. It is impossible, as elsewhere, to pay with a 1,000-lire banknote. “This naturally causes the inevitable anger of motorists, who often find themselves short of change,” adds Righetti. “They go to nearby shops or bars to exchange the paper 1,000-lire note for coins. But shopkeepers don’t always accept, as sometimes there’s a rush of coin-searchers, and in such cases, the motorist is forced to buy a coffee to get change to insert into the coin slot. Some, rather than go through this often humiliating process, simply avoid the shops in the historic center and head to supermarkets on the outskirts, where there are no parking or toll problems.”