SYRACUSE --
Paying for parking in downtown Syracuse will soon be easier but it is going to cost you. The city began training employees to install new parking pay stations that accept credit cards. For the first time in fifteen years the city is also raising the rate to park from 75 cents an hour to $1.25. The Common Council approved the change last May, but the new rate wasn't implemented until the credit card readers were ready for installation. Pay stations will accept Visa and MasterCard credit cards at the same rate as cash.
Updating the city's 280 pay stations will take four to six weeks. Downtown residents like Ryan Philbrick says the city already makes it difficult to park. " I live in the apartment here and I come down every two hours when I am sleeping to pay the meter it's ridiculous," he says.
But merchants like James Horan, owner of the Edge clothing store, say the parking meters are needed to keep cars moving in and out of downtown. " We want to encourage customers to come downtown but it is necessary for them to pay meters so they move their cars after a couple of hours. Than we can have turnover of the meters," he says.
Once the new parking rate goes goes into effect, it will cost more to park in Syracuse than other upstate cities including Buffalo and Rochester.
