Born, raised and lived in NE Portland, 52 years and counting. Now I’m counting down the days till my freshman graduates and I can leave this once great city.

At first glance the new fees are needed for parking/traffic related issues so the burden is passed on to motorists. Reading further it seems the fees could be used for other maintenance. If the fees are being used to support issues other than those related to problems caused by motorists (“deteriorating infrastructure in the park”), then how are the bus, bike, and walker types paying their fair share?

That letter is way too long to say we have decided to screw you with the lame duck City Council. The big money will be in the overtime parking tickets at $40 a pop.

Send those surplus meters back to the vendor.

I smell fish frying at the next election.

Portland's urban renewal areas are diverting money away from basic services (infrastructure maintenance, parks). I suspect that the city is adding these new fees to offset the damage done by urban renewal.

Commissioner Amanda Fritz wrote [1] about the impact of the urban renewal back in May 2012:

we the City and the taxpayers of Portland citywide, are forgoing $60 million in taxes that would ordinarily be available for use citywide in the General Fund.

We are already cutting back in many basic services like public safety, parks, and transportation.

Each year less goes to the general fund and more goes to paying off debt generated by Urban Renewal Districts.

[1] http://www.portlandonline.com/fritz/?a=398462&c=49233

This is why the head tax concept is beginning, and parking meters everywhere they can possibly place them.

I was under the impression that once was fraud was confirmed by the court that the spoils had to be returned -- so why are we installing yet more parking meters and rewarding the criminals who escaped incarceration*?
*OK, McCoy hasn't been sentenced yet.

"If the fees are being used to support issues other than those related to problems caused by motorists (“deteriorating infrastructure in the park”), then how are the bus, bike, and walker types paying their fair share?"
By practicing discrimation towards those who drive.

It costs $10 to park pretty much anywhere out-of-doors in Washington, no matter how backwoods. This is not a bad deal.

Parks Bureau claiming that parking fees will be spent for a designated use is bogus.

For over 20 years Willamette Park in Johns Landing has charged for parking. All of the revenue was to go to the park's maintenance and improvements. Look at the park today. Decaying docks, drainage problems, not one improvement in the 20 years. And now the water bureau is taking over a corner of the park for a pumping station with a nominal gift from the water bureau to the parks bureau for the takings.

Washington Park's parking fee is just another tax device to be used any which way.

Zach - If you're speaking about parking at trailheads, state or federal parks, etc. one can purchase an annual pass. In some cases, one can earn an annual pass with volunteer hours. This is a cash only option. I think attendance and volunteer hours will both suffer.

That may be an end goal, less attendance and eventually no need to keep, thus prime land for spendy condos. The City of Roses has been chipped away at for years now, so symbolic that the Old Rose Garden be reduced down to a small area just for memory's sake.