Photo by Alex Flores
City of Santa Ana, Downtown Orange County
SANTA ANA, CA (July 17, 2014) – The City of Santa Ana announced the rollout of new solar-powered smart meters in the downtown area. The new parking meters will improve the experience for visitors in the downtown and provide multiple payment options including payment by credit and debit card.
“This is great for businesses and residents in the downtown. Having multiple payment options is an added convenience for our visitors and the meters themselves use smart technology to improve our parking meter efficiency,” said Councilwoman Michele Martinez.
“The new smart meters are easy to use and make it much more convenient for people to visit downtown,” said Restaurant Association President Jeff Hall.
The new solar-powered parking meters are equipped with back-up batteries, self-monitor to identify operational problems and use wireless technology to notify technicians promptly if any problems occur. Through this system, meters report their status and activity, provide parking occupancy data and text alerts to instantly report jams to technicians.
An enhanced option to add meter time via mobile phone will also be rolled out in the coming months giving visitors to the downtown the option to pay for meter time remotely. The smart meters use real-time online credit card authorization processes, which meet the highest Visa and MasterCard standards for credit card information security. No credit card information is ever stored on the meters or on any City information system.
“The installation of the new smart parking meters is in alignment with the City’s Five Year Strategic Plan,” said City Manager David Cavazos. “This is another example of the City’s dedication to innovation and efficiency.”
The City will replace close to five hundred coin-only meters in the downtown area, between Civic Center Drive and First Street, by Friday. Rates will remain the same.
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What is so “smart” about charging for parking when every shopping center in Orange County has free parking? You don’t see any parking meters in downtown Orange – and there are plenty of free parking lots there as well. You may as well put up signs that say “we really don’t want you shopping in DTSA.”
We totally agree.
Good points. t the reality is, Seamus, editor and myself Don’t shop there. I have to believe that our children are more centric to Main place, the block or the Shops at Orange.
So this amounts to another “tax the poor” move, like the pre-paid cell phone tax or the rumored food tax, that made Cavasos in Arizona. I am not necessarily opposed, but, let’s call these things what they are. TAXING THE POOR.
I have long been confused about the attention paid to DTSA, while the rest of the city is in disrepair. But, It’s all about a money grab, and the biggest chunks are in and around First and Main.
With term limits and stunted intelligence most council members lack the patience to ride out a wide spread rip-off of the people. Besides, those that support the, but CAN NOT vote for them are a vocal lot.