Joe Kennedy

Joe Kennedy is routinely named the region's best writer by readers of The Roanoker magazine.

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There is nothing on the Roanoke City Market that you and I can't get elsewhere.

We can buy home-grown vegetables at other public markets, roadside stands and stores.

We can find restaurants, including fancy restaurants, from Salem to Vinton to Botetourt.

We can go to Showtimers or other community theaters for a lot less than it costs to go to Mill Mountain Theatre.

We can drink and dance in several spots, shop in malls and enjoy the Star City without setting one foot on the Roanoke City Market.

And we can park for free.

Roanoke City Council doesn't seem to understand this. On July 1, it will institute a $2 fee to park in municipal garages in several downtown areas, including the city market, during special events and on nights and weekends.

This overturns the free parking policy that has been in effect for several years.

The fee at the Market Square garage will go from $2 to $3 at such times.

Officially, the extra money will help pay off $7.2 million in debt service for a new garage several blocks west on Campbell Avenue across from the Roanoke police station.

Unofficially, who knows what's going on?

Bronx cheers

Like the lover who screams "I hate you" and in the next breath whimpers "Don't leave me," Roanoke council members apparently assume the market's charms will offset their actions.

It's a risky assumption to make.

A story in Tuesday's Roanoke Times included reactions from eight people representing a wide spectrum of market users. Not one thought charging the parking fee is a good idea.

Like Center in the Square's notion of how the market should be changed, the effect of the fee is to turn off the people who love the place the most.

No logic

Barry Corswandt of Sumdat Farm Market, a city market mainstay, said people already have the mistaken perception that there is no place to park. Charging $2 to get into municipal garages does not alleviate that perception.

In addition, Corswandt said, nobody will pay $2 to park long enough to buy a bag of tomatoes. "It doesn't make economic sense."

Tom Anderton, owner of Sam's on the Market clothing store, said, "I'm just really disappointed" by the increase.

He'd gladly pay $2 per day to help the city fix up the eyesore of a garage at the market's south end.

Instead, he said, the city is asking the market's patrons to help pay for a garage that won't help them or him at all.

It makes so little sense that I, for one, suspect there is more to it -- council members' vision, perhaps, of tens of thousands of new visitors when the new Art Museum of Western Virginia opens.

It would be natural for the politicians to see the visitors as a human revenue stream.

It would be surprising if anybody admitted it.

But I'm just speculating.

After years of resurgence, the market includes many strong magnets -- fine restaurants, unique shops and popular clubs as well as its craft and produce vendors.

It is a feel-good zone. Free parking is one ingredient in the feel-good recipe.

But we can feel good -- and park free -- elsewhere. And if necessary, we will.

Roanoke created two-way streets to show off downtown and instituted free parking to get people there when the employment force is gone.

As a result, the city has a busy, popular hub.

Passing the new fees has created one more obstacle for a government desperate to bring in customers.

City Councilman Sherman Lea believes it's a bad idea. Incredibly, he was the only dissenter.

Vice Mayor David Trinkle said the city's current parking rates are "significantly lower" than in other cities. But market businesses don't compete with those in Norfolk or Richmond. They compete with businesses at Valley View Mall or elsewhere in the valley.

Something just doesn't add up. You don't alienate the public and jeopardize your prime attraction to pay debt service on a garage several blocks away.

It could be another unintended consequence of the new art museum.

I don't like it.

Do you?