Free Valet Parking Proposed for West Dearborn
The paid parking conundrum in downtown West Dearborn could be helped with the introduction of a free valet parking system for the entire downtown district, at least that is a plan being shopped by Cambridge Real Estate and Fakhoury Ventures.
In a letter to Deepsaidwhat.com, Yasir Kaskorkis, the property manager for Cambridge Real Estate, says he and Fakhoury Ventures have been working with the ECD and DDA to help support a free valet parking system. It is an interesting idea. His letter begins below.
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Yasir Kaskorkis and I am a property manager for Cambridge Real Estate, who also oversees all Fakhoury Properties in Downtown West Dearborn. As many of you are aware, there has been a decline in patronage to the downtown district since the necessary paid parking increases took effect in July. Besides the economic conditions, a competitive project in Allen Park (with free parking) and a decrease in business population have affected us tremendously. You will all agree the businesses in the district with no paid parking are at a significant competitive advantage to those who require their patrons to pay.
Paid parking has been a controversial topic, and it looks as though it will continue to be for some time. As business people, we must learn to work within our constraints. That is why over the past several months Cambridge Real Estate and Fakhoury Ventures have been working with the ECD and DDA to help support a free valet parking system for the entire downtown district (the first of its kind in the Metro-Detroit area). We will be requesting marketing funds from the DDA to help fund this operation. The funds will serve to alleviate the burden of operating the system from the business owners and to promote the free valet parking system. These are funds we desperately need in order to make this project successful. The amount of funds put forth by the business owners will be dependent on the amount of funds approved by the DDA. As we inch closer to accomplishing our goal, we politely request your support for the district wide valet system. Your patrons will be treated to free valet and will no longer have to be concerned with parking fees. We have plans to promote the free valet system through various media outlets, in attempts to gain back the clientele that once brought prosperity to Downtown West Dearborn.
The more parking rates increase, the more difficult it will be to attract customers and retain current business. The time to act is now; we need your support more than ever. We ask that you spread the word in an attempt to bring people together to make Downtown West Dearborn a destination spot in the Metro-Detroit area. Everyone is affected by lack of business, from your managers to your employees. Our goal is to enhance downtown West Dearborn to make it a viable retail destination, and with your help we can make this happen. We look forward to a constructive working relationship with all of the parties involved. Please call and/or email your Dearborn Councilman and Woman or your DDA Board Member.
Thank you,
Yasir Kaskorkis
22022 Michigan Avenue
November 29th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Ecuse me? Valet parking? Let me see how this works. Here I am pulling up to let’s say Panera Cares to grab a low cost food item. I pull up, get out of my car and out of nowhere comes a Valet to wisk my car away to who knows where. I Stand in line, order, take my food to a table, eat it, now I am ready to go. It has been maybe 15 minutes at most. Now I pull out my Valet ticket and try to find a Valet to retreive my car from who knows where. I wait. I wait more, and finally, thankfully my car is returned to me, hopefully undamaged. I now feel obligated to give this hard working individual a tip.
Maybe a buck. Can you tell me how this Valet scenerio I describe is saving anything?
For one, I want to park, walk 50 steps and be in the store. I want to know exactly where my vehicle is. I do not really like the idea of a bunch of Valets running cars back and forth to some “unpaid” lot. To top it off, this just cost me a buck, actually a bit more or around the same it would be to park in the paid parking lot. This Valet solution evidently has not been well thought out. Was critical thinking applied? or did it just sound like a good idea to avoid paying in the City owned lots?
I personally hate paid parking. I already pay enough damn taxes in this City. I see the waste of leaf pickup on a Saturday. I see Librarians standing reading the paper while non-tax payers to the City use free Internet. I see the fiasco of the Performing Arts Center that my tax dollars built, attracting more non tax payers to use facilites my taxes built. I could go on for another two pages.
I am so sick of this City being so messed up, the last thing I want to do is now have Valet service. Drop this idea, it is stupid!! The simple solution, bulldoze paid parking!!
November 29th, 2011 at 4:10 pm
Lets make this simple why don’t the businesses validate the paid parking. So the bars and rest. just raise there prices to cover there expenses. If Cambridge Real Estate and Fakhoury Ventures would pay more attention to their properties and get them rented at fair prices maybe we would get more businesses to move in. Paid parking is not the problem its the landlords clean up your act and start looking for new tenants.
November 29th, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Anything Fahoury (Hakim) is in favor of, will only sscrew the City Of Dearborn. Hakim is a con-artist, so you know there is something attached to this idea. Big Jack I hope you are on to Hakim and his boys, as he has made you look like a chump so many times in the past, show some balls this time, and have the prope r documents drawn up, so you won’t have this blow up in your face again.
November 29th, 2011 at 6:56 pm
Couldn’t agree with u more. Why not relieve parking during certain hours during the holiday season? Who knows u might attract some new shoppers — a novel idea. Give would-be shoppers a break, we get screwed enough during the year, how about a break during the holiday season.
November 29th, 2011 at 7:15 pm
How do you validate a parking meter?
November 30th, 2011 at 1:17 am
Mr. Kaskorkis,
Nice try, but I do not like valet parking. I am uncomfortable handing my keys over to a stranger so unfortunately this will not draw me to shop in downtown Dearborn.
I must ask you though, are you doing your best to attract business to our city? Wouldn’t it be better to have a lot of businesses with cheaper rents than to have just a few and have the rent so high that it is difficult for them to survive? I would like to see more shopping and things to do down there besides eating. With all the vacant businesses down there you should be knocking on doors and giving incentives for good businesses to open down there. Have you read the previous articles here and what businesses people would like to see down there?? I’m glad you are making an effort, but unfortunately I will not be using the new valet system. Please do something anything to bring this city back. Work with the city on getting rid of paid parking or at least lowering the prices and giving more free time. Get out there and try to get some good stores and businesses to locate down there. The world has changed in the last few years. Your original plan is not going to work in todays economy. PLEASE come up with something anything to save our downtown.
November 30th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
great idea in theory but I agree with the other folks – bring in more businesses to the vacant storefronts
November 30th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
The City let money slip through its fingers? No way would they do that; Mayor McCheese needs every dime they can pry out of peoples hands to pay for all of their stupid decisions (Somers lawsuit. Pastor Jones, BK lawsuit…), the list gets quite lengthy. He is a low down, dirty dictator.
Here is yet another example.
I live and pay taxes in this City fo the past 20 years. My child belongs to the Dearborn Youth Symphany and practices on a weekly basis. My wife went to pick him up from practice at the circular drive at the Performing Arts Center, waited in the car and watched as the sneaky parking enforcement “officer” came out of nowhere to give other DYS parents tickets who had stepped inside to check on how long their child would be. I am sure these orders come straight from Mayor McCheese or his cronies. Give us a break. Is this City that desperate to ticket the Youth Symphony parents for stepping away from their cars for a moment to check on their children? My wife also observed the “officer” practically ran off before he could be confronted by the not so happy parents. Try fighting crime, try to drive out the losers from this City, not the taxpayers, because that’s exactly what you idiots in City Hall are doing!!
November 30th, 2011 at 2:38 pm
Mario you are the man. Hakim is an idiot, and he has bragged about making Big Jack as you call him, as well as his administration continously look bad, yet they still come back for more. Do something for the local merchants in Dearborn during the holidays, as well as the patrons, who shop locally, because the City as well as the merchants, need a boost, and in a small way this would show some good p.r. on the Cities part (because we know the local Chamber won’t do anything constructive). Think about this, and maybe implement it quickly, for the holidays.
November 30th, 2011 at 8:59 pm
Valet parking is never free. As someone already mentioned, there’s that little thing called the tip. And that just continues the absolute worst part about the current paid-parking system: The necessity for cash-in-hand. I’d have less of a beef with paid parking if more of the parking lots/garages accepted credit and debit cards. Another option I’d like is a parking decal that you pay for. A one-year permit for $15, maybe $20, would allow you to park anywhere for no additional cost. Just a couple thoughts…
November 30th, 2011 at 10:01 pm
There is no paid parking ‘conundrum’. Offer a service that people find useful, food that people want to eat, and they’ll pay the measly 50 cents to park. People pay 5 bucks for a Starbucks latte for crying out loud.
Mr. Deep, and anyone else for that matter, I’d suggest that instead of rocking on your hobby horse about paid parking, you go talk to the business owners whom appear to be succeeding in West Dearborn and ASK THEM what they think about the reasons for their success and the office vacancies in Dearborn.
The dozens of people I talk to who visit Dearborn to go out and visit have never once mentioned paid parking as being a hindrance to visiting to Dearborn.
November 30th, 2011 at 10:02 pm
I think it’s a GREAT idea…only instead of the part where the Valet guy takes your car and parks it, they should just have him hand you two bucks after you park your own car but before you enter the building you’re going into!
December 1st, 2011 at 1:07 am
Pa
December 1st, 2011 at 6:21 am
Your Crazy, Name the Dozen.
December 1st, 2011 at 6:28 am
Not 50 cents an hour everywhere, they jack the prices up in the busiest lots to .75 and 1.00 per hour, behind Howell’s and the Post. Shows how long you patronize these area stores.
December 1st, 2011 at 6:42 am
Wasn’t Paid Parking started and supported by Hakim Fakhoury? Wasn’t he the one who was going to build this big development with shopping, condo’s, movie theaters…Why hasn’t Fakhoury held up to his responsibilities like demolish the Condemn Buildings that Plague the West end Area?
December 1st, 2011 at 9:25 am
I think part of the problem is that there is no “theme”. The city and the developers need to work together. If you are going to have Panera Cares, Family Dollar and Goodwill Ind. down there, you can’t have paid and or valet parking. The two just don’t go together. If they want paid parking they need to have nice stores and places people would want to go to pay for parking. We have a lot of good bars that serve good burgers BUT there are bars that serve good burgers all over the Detroit Metro Area that have free parking so why pay an extra 75 cents or buck or whatever it is per hour for a burger? They have tons of places with good burgers in Allen Park and everyone is already there shopping so why come to expensive Dearborn. But bottom line is that if they want paid parking, we need good businesses that people would want to go to and are willing to pay to park to patronize. If we have low end stores than we need to do away with paid parking. So you are saying after I shop at Family Dollar and Goodwill then I can pay .75 to $1.00 an hour to eat at Panera Cares? It doesn’t make sense. And the valet idea is a joke. This is all they can come up with?
December 1st, 2011 at 11:52 am
There is no way that anything that Fakhoury suggests will benefit anyone but Fakhoury.
I watch the council meetings. About three months ago, his condemned properties came up as he wanted a demolition variance. Of course, the council and the mayor explained away why he needed it. Demolition was to start the following Friday. Surprise, Surprise, Surprise, nothing has happened.
The only council member to even question it was Susan S. who said that she hoped that the same issue wouldn’t be up before the council again in December.
Well, guess what? It is December again. The buildings are still standing and now a new idea from Fakhoury.
People should remember all of this nonsense when the elections come around.
Enough is Enough. It is time to question what Fakhoury is holding over the heads of the mayor and the council.
December 1st, 2011 at 3:15 pm
Cloe, simply another bitch slap to Bluto and gis cronies, except for Suzanne (she’s onto Hakim). Haakim keeps making them look like fools, andthey still give him extensions. I know for a fact he has told a lot of us, that Bluto is afraid of him, and as long as it stays that way, the rest will conform, and who can dispute that. Its a crying shame, the so-called leaders all are gun-shy of this idiot. IF OUR cITY IS TO MOVE FORWARD HAVE SOME BALLS COUNCIL.
December 1st, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Getting so tired of everything getting done bass ackwards in this city. And this is just another bass ackward idea.
December 2nd, 2011 at 6:40 am
I am one of the dozen.
December 2nd, 2011 at 10:27 am
I think I may just move to Allen Park. Lots of shopping, free parking, no parking restrictions in front of my house on trash day so I can have company over on that day and come and go as I please without moving the cars all around. Once they close the rest of the branch libraries and the pools there will be nothing for my family left here in Dearborn. Oh yes I forgot constant street sweeping, leaf pick up and parking tickets if I take to long eating my hamburger at the bar and don’t make it out to feed the meter in time. Dearborn is not a friendly place or a place that seems to be people orientated anymore and this makes me sad. Then what will be sad also is the list of cronies that will get on here and tell me if I don’t like it to move to Detroit or Redford. Well people with these high taxes now and the only services they are keeping are public service day and leaf pick up and paid parking people will be leaving. Dearborn is not a desirable place to live anymore. It is somewhat of a joke. And the big fix they come up with is valet parking? I can see it now, tipping the valet to return a book to the Bryant Library. Then I’ll be on my way to Family Dollar. Too bad the Aldi didn’t go in like it was supposed to. That would have completed the “upscale” image. And we are all paying higher taxes for this?
December 2nd, 2011 at 11:07 am
I have an idea. Maybe we can have a valet for public service day too. That way our cars can be off the street so they can clean and polish the street needlessly every week and we can just come out and snap our fingers and someone will go pick our cars up from the nearest commercial lot and bring them to us all nice and warm.
December 2nd, 2011 at 3:44 pm
You are correct, Dearborn used to be a place you could be proud of, however, that changed with the present administration. All they care about is revenue, and not the people anymore. For the little service they give people, they want us to bend over and kiss their fannies. Thats not the way Dearborn was before, the residents were treated like kings and queens when they ran into problems, now no one will assist you, and that comes from the way that idiot on michigan and schaefer treats people. He must not have paid attention to his father, because he has no compassion or courtesy to the people who pay him to represent them. When someone like Hakim continuously sticks it to the City, they let him do it, because they simply aren’t leaders — that wasn’t the case before. Lets pray for change, or else we are doomed.
December 2nd, 2011 at 8:00 pm
I like the way you put that. We were treated like kings and queens here. And the elderly and children had so many more opportunities back in the old days too. Now I feel like they are doing things to make my life here in Dearborn more unpleasant instead of working to serve me and make my life here as a Dearborn taxpayer something to be proud of.
December 4th, 2011 at 2:55 pm
Start with the basics – valet is the stupidest idea of the year, for the many reasons set forth below. Why not just have a guy walk around and put quarters in the meters, it would be a lot cheaper.
Fair conclusion – team Hakim hasn’t got a clue how to rent their properties. If this is the best they got (and I haven’t heard anything else recently), they got nothing. By the way, what happened to that fancy-pants developer from Ann Arbor who was going to partner with Hakim about 2 years ago?
Fair rents, quality property maintenance, prompt completion of demolition, modern integrated neighborhood design – all based on the real needs of retailers, offices and residents – are all alien concepts.
If I were Hakim, I would talk trash about the administration too, why not, they earned his contempt.
Someone should get Charlie LeDuff following these cats around for a couple days, sure it would be real good tv.
December 4th, 2011 at 8:47 pm
I commend Mr. Kaskorkis for putting forth an idea, but valet parking is definitely not the way to go. It makes no sense here. The best thing to do is get rid of paid parking now. Cover up the meters and move the employees to other part-time positions in the city.
It is a stark and stunning difference between the areas with paid parking and the areas without. In paid parking areas, there have been so many business closures it’s hard to keep up anymore. Sure there are closures in areas without paid parking, but it isn’t nearly as extensive or as consistent.
If city leaders don’t have what it takes to do the right thing and put an end to paid parking, then they should at least try to make it workable and at least somewhat profitable (right now, it is a total money pit). How can they do that? It may not be possible after all. At the very least they should: accept credit and debit cards, lower rates, sell yearly or monthly passes, OR better yet: why not make it like Panera Cares? Suggest a price but no one has to pay; whatever people give will be a donation.
December 5th, 2011 at 7:08 am
Can anyone tell me why there as a front end loader parked next to the old Post Office Yesterday ( Tenny and West Village Road) with a hood covering the meter!! I went to Dee’s Hallmark about 5:00 to pick up a few things and because I drive a full size van always park next to that building by the meter. Oh and you’re going to love this, I dropped .75 cents in the meter forgetting it was Sunday and you can park for free………..
I would like to know who owns that piece of equipment and why it was parked there and the meter was covered1
December 5th, 2011 at 10:30 am
Are you sure they still have free parking on Sundays? I thought they got rid of that. Looks like I’ll be eating all my hamburgers on Sunday if it is still free to park. Why don’t they have signs posted or remind people in the paper if the parking is free on Sunday? I will go down there on Sunday if this is true. Is it, anybody?
December 5th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
Well according to the employee at Dee’s, parking is still free on Sundays, she said that is why there is no attendant in the parking structure accross from their store. I have to agree with you, why isn’t there a reminder in the paper about this….maybe there is and I just missed it.
December 5th, 2011 at 9:58 pm
That’s part of the problem in this city. Why isn’t that information “out there” so they can promote the city. Maybe people will go down there on Sunday and find they like a certain business and then go back on a paid parking day. If it is for sure free I will go on Sundays. We shouldn’t have to look for this information. They should be reminding people all the time if they want people to go down there. I never wanted to take the chance on getting a ticket so I just never went.
December 6th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
Still free on Sundays. There are also a few free 15 minute spots in the lot behind the Post Bar if you want to run in and get carry out. You just push the button on the meter and run!
December 7th, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Green meters behind Pizza Papalis are also free for !5 minutes.
December 7th, 2011 at 5:27 pm
Isn’t it amazing Daisy how the rules are made and then broken? Guess it all depends on who you are in this city or who you know.