Pleasant Backtracking

THE CITY

The municipal world gasped in awe and wonder at the mass decapitation 14 months ago, when the city of St. Petersburg, Fla. (pop. 200,000), lopped off every one of its 4,1 86 curbside parking meters. Letters poured in from cities as far away as Britain, asking about the feasibility of this unprecedented backtracking--the result of a determined campaign by Realtor Richard D. Tourtelot, who managed to convince St. Petersburg officials that the meters were the major factor in the blight that had fallen on the city's downtown area. Downtown doldrums are getting to be pandemic, and if meter removal was a solution, other cities wanted to know about it.

Last week at the convention of the American Municipal Association at Miami Beach, St. Petersburg's city manager, Texan Lynn H. Andrews, presented a report on the first meterless year. Highlights:

> Traffic congestion did not increase, nor parking spaces disappear. The average parking time during business hours dropped from 29 minutes with meters to 26 1/2 minutes without them.

> The number of cars parkingin the downtown area jumped from a daily average of 19,032 to 21,483--up almost 13%. The cumulative effect of this, states the report, was to give merchants "an extra 40 days of business potential during the year, with more than three-quarters of a million more using downtown spaces." > Revenue from the meters had been $257,000 during their last twelve months of operation. To cushion this loss of income, the city council raised overtime parking fines from $1 to $2. The time limit per space was set at two hours. Revenue from parking tickets dropped $18,000, and the overall loss to the city was $275,000.

The municipal men at Miami did not receive the report with much enthusiasm; the loss in revenue seemed to them like a high price tag for some customer good will and increased circulation. "It seems to have been fairly successful, but it's not a full solution," said St. Pete's Mayor Herman Goldner.

But back in St. Petersburg, the merchants seemed pleased as punch at the way things were working out. Most of them echoed Ralph Howard, manager of the National Shirt Shop at downtown's main crossroads: "Business is up about 15%. More important, the attitude of the customers is much more pleasant. They're not in a bad mood any more."

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