Dearborn Councilman Doug Thomas, long an opponent of paid parking, wants the matter to be put on the ballot again because he says the current setup in west Dearborn isn’t working.

In the event you missed his motion at the March 16 council meeting, we’ve attached a few video clips here from that meeting where Thomas lays out his case for doing away with paid parking and putting it before voters again. It’s classic Thomas, not letting the facts get in the way of the points he wants to make nor explaining how the city would cover its costs for the $10 million it spent to build two parking decks should voters reject paid parking, which we suspect they would this time.

Thomas called for the reintroduction of a Special Assessment District (SAD) – an area where a special assessment is imposed because of a public project that benefits the owners in the defined area. This was supported by Double Olive bar owner Joe Agius who shared his views on paid parking with the council.  With the city’s debt costs for the decks being rolled into an SAD this time around, we wonder whether the costs to business owners in the area would end up making an SAD prohibitively expensive.

“It all started with Jumbo and Dumbo, the white elephants sitting there and how to pay for them,” Thomas said of the city’s two parking decks. “It was put on the bar owners and merchants in west Dearborn, a paid to park scheme. Well it sure didn’t work out there for Jumbo and Dumbo and it’s not working for the restaurant and bar owners in west Dearborn today.”

Thomas does make a few good points, including the suggestion that the entrance to Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, now the Henry Ford, should be off of Michigan Avenue, just east of Brady, rather than Oakwood. If the entrance were on Michigan, merchants in west Dearborn might see additional business come there way. The way it is now, after a visit to the Henry Ford, people just pack into their car and leave, Thomas says.