ABSTRACT
The city can clean the streets more often, fill potholes, repair sidewalks, plant trees, remove graffiti, preserve historic buildings, or put utility wires underground in neighborhoods where the benefit districts generate revenue. Seen from the residents' side of the bargain, charging nonresidents for curb parking resembles Monty Python's plan to solve Britain's economic problems by taxing foreigners living abroad. Parking benefit districts are a compromise between free curb parking that leads to overcrowding and permit districts that lead to underuse. Parking is political, and parking benefit districts fit into the category of "client politics" as defined by James Q. Wilson. Residents will want to charge for curb parking only if their own neighborhoods receive the revenue; when a higher level of government takes the revenue, the opposite incentive is created. Parking requirements even prevent converting former coach houses into apartments.
