Free Valet Parking Begins Today in West Dearborn
Service is Thursday-Saturday nights under 90-day pilot; special promotions tonight at bars, restaurants
After weeks of discussions and planning, Dearborn’s west downtown district will begin to offer free valet beginning Thursday for customers of participating businesses.
We’ve written several stories HERE about this plan and City Council approved it at Monday’s meeting.
The free service will be 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.
West Dearborn bars and restaurants will also offer special drink or appetizer deals on Dec. 15 (tonight) in conjunction with this new promotion, with proceeds donated to the Dearborn Goodfellows.
Two valet parking drop off points in public parking areas south of Michigan Avenue on West Village Drive between Monroe and Military will give customers easy access to restaurants, bars and shops in the district.
Two more drop off points are planned for north of Michigan Avenue between Monroe and Mason in the future.
With the support of the City of Dearborn and the West Dearborn Downtown Development Authority (WDDDA), the participating business owners have joined together to offer this free service to attract customers to the district, especially in the winter.
Patrons of other businesses in the district will pay $5 to use the valet service.
The complementary valet service is a 90-day pilot program initially lasting until mid-March. Its success will be evaluated at that time.
The participating businesses will pay the City of Dearborn’s parking system $40 a month for each space reserved for valet. That fee is in line with the system’s monthly parking permits.
At least 100 spots will be reserved, and more are possible based on the popularity of the service.
By offering free parking and free valet service, the west Dearborn businesses will encourage customers who may otherwise be reluctant to pay for parking, or who don’t want to trudge through snow during an evening out.
Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. said the new service benefits all participants. “The parking system is still collecting fees for the spots used by the valet service, businesses are showing their appreciation for their customers and generating more traffic, and customers have the added convenience and value of free parking and valet service.
“We know there are great restaurants and bars in west Dearborn,” he said, “and we invite anyone who hasn’t been there lately, or who hasn’t wanted to pay for parking, to come back and experience a terrific meal or a memorable night out.”
Other parking is available in the business district for $.50, $.75 or $1 an hour, depending on the spot selected.
For more information, visit West Dearborn Downtown Development Authority on Facebook, visit www.dearbornwestonline.com or follow WestDearbornDDA on Twitter.
PARTICIPATING BUSINESSES VALIDATING FOR FREE VALET PARKING
as of Dec. 14, 2011
• Ciao’s
• Crave
• Don Yeyo Cigar Factory
• Double Olive
• Habuki
• iBurger
• Le Cigar Emporium
• Moose Martini Bar
• The Post Bar
• The Well
December 15th, 2011 at 11:47 am
Here goes another dead end idea! Approved by our mindless City Government. I am just waiting to hear about the first damage report of a car from a Valet, Who’s gonna pick up that bill ultimatley? The Dearborn taxpayers? It is a pretty sad list of establishements shown that consist of places to drink, smoke and eat quickly (not dine at length). I could not even call West Dearborn a shopping district anymore, there really is none to speak of. Shopping to me means being able to stroll from store to store to buy goods that cost more than $1. It means stores that offer clothing of all sorts, mens, womens, children, not just a suit. It means somewhere that draws people to seek out, not just drive by. I am just waiting to say “I told you so” about this stupid Valet idea, it will just be a matter of time!
December 15th, 2011 at 12:30 pm
Guaranteed to be a collosal FLOP.
December 15th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
Good Luck on this one! How many people do they think know about this? It was approved on Moday nite and this is really the only place I’ve seen any info.
Also at Monday’s meeting it was announced that you can no longer block the sidewalk with your cars on PSD or Snow Emergencies – how many people will know about this?
December 15th, 2011 at 6:39 pm
What a debacle! Half the lot is reserved for valet and the other half is full! Thanks, thanks a lot. Total mismanagement, as usual.
December 16th, 2011 at 4:11 pm
Are you serious?
December 16th, 2011 at 5:22 pm
I happened to be out last night and it was a disaster. At least 1/3 of the lot was reserved for valet. That lot was nearly empty. The remaining 2/3 of the parking lot was even more congested than usual on a Saturday night, forcing patrons to park even further away in the 29 degree weather. Very frustrating. Very stupid. I need to get out of this city.
December 17th, 2011 at 6:31 am
Donna, that’s the point, they don’t want you to know,and to make it more confusing, they just published in the last “Back Fence” under the heading of snow emergencies that you could park across the side walks during a snow emergencies.
I live on Beech where a lot of people have no driveways at all, I have a shared drive and here’s how it works when we get a snow emergency where you have to move your vehicle off of the street…..I call my neighbor and we manage to park 5 vehicles in the drive, figuring out who needs to get out first, second, third and so on. This works every year and do you know why it works… COMMUNICATION!! Then of course there is the one neighbor who leaves his car parked in the street during the storm, not just anywhere on the street but in front of our house so the plows have to drive around them leaving a Hugh pile of snow in front of our house. Then the next day when the emergency is over they try to move their vehicle out by rocking back and forth of an hour packing down the snow and turning it to ice.
Here’s my point, the police never ticket that car, or any others on the street during the snow storm so I don’t think they will bother ticketing someone parked across their driveway. They would have to get out of their cars to do that!!
December 17th, 2011 at 8:59 am
at first, i thought this was no big deal but yeah, all the meters that are in the back (ie: the cheap ones) are the ones that are cut off for valet. i had no idea where to drop off my car at lunch and yes, all of the valet was empty, friday at lunch at least. if this is going to work, there needs to be serious signage telling people where to drop off their car.
December 17th, 2011 at 10:51 am
There is no valet during lunch hours. It is only 5 to 2 Thursday-Saturday. The city is charging the businesses 40 dollars per spot per day and the valet only runs three days and with hours when most businesses are not even open. If you are paying 40 dollars for the spot on Monday why wouldn’t you have valet as well and what about lunch patrons?
December 17th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
I guess I misunderstood this. I assumed that the cars would be valet parked in the underused parking structures. That makes sense. What makes absolulely no sense is to cordon off parking spaces for valet in the most used parking lot in the district. Someone fix this quick!!!!
December 17th, 2011 at 1:22 pm
They should either get rid of paid parking or have the first two hours free. Those who are in favor of continuing paid parking say: how else is the city going to pay off the debt? Continuing with paid parking is ADDING to the debt. Last year it left a hole of over $650,000 in the budget, and over the years it has contributed to the demise of an astonishing number of businesses. Either businesses have to start paying for their own parking lots or more good businesses will needlessly close. Paid parking is NOT working here. How much longer do we have to wait until city officials realize that? And though for the sake of Dearborn’s businesses I hope valet parking will bring in more customers, frankly, it sounds like a joke. Who would use valet parking to go to any of these businesses?
December 17th, 2011 at 2:21 pm
Valet parking is not available during the day – only Thurs – Sat from 5:00 PM to 2:00 AM.
Do you mean that you couldn’t park in the valet spaces during the day??
December 17th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Daisy – I noticed that the newsletter I get thru emails explains the valet parking but not the fact that you cannot park across you driveway during PSD or snow emergencies. Funny they were both approved at the same council meeting. Guess getting money from valet parking is more important. Ya gotta love this city administration!!
December 17th, 2011 at 10:45 pm
So we give them all this extra tax money and this is what we get? Valet parking and not letting people block the sidewalk during snow emergencies? What a waste of our money AGAIN! How many people even block the sidewalk at that time? And if it is such an emergency where do they expect the people with the smaller homes and driveways south of Michigan Avenue to put them? Is the free valet going to come pick them up for us?
Businesses are closing, houses are being abandoned, children are going hungry and without medical care and all our city is concerned about is where people are parking?
Hey guys GET A CLUE?
December 18th, 2011 at 10:29 am
yes, the valet parking spots were blocked off,where the cheap meters are.
December 18th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
Why don’t you ask the people what they think this administration has screwed our City again, by losing the appeal on the Judge Somers case, against Julie Pucci, instead of worrying so much about valet service in town?
December 18th, 2011 at 7:47 pm
So our City administrators have cost us some more money, what else is new, evidently thats why they needed the extra cash from our last election for, and for any future lawsuits, by our illustrious Judge Pee Wee Herman lookalike Somers will have to pay up, just don’t forget this next time he comes knocking on your door for a vote. Down with O’Reilly and Somers, they are killing our City.
December 20th, 2011 at 9:49 pm
The SAD is still in effect in east Dearborn. The west Dearborn businesses complained that the SAS was to expensive , so the city (voter approved) came up with the paid parking (user cost) system now in effect there.