Free snowstorm parking lot program in Minneapolis, St. Paul was a big hit
MINNEAPOLIS – The reviews are in: Free parking in the Twin Cities during last week's snowstorm was a hit.
Minnesota's two largest cities wanted fewer cars on the streets during the snow, so Minneapolis made seven parking lots available for free, and St. Paul opened eight.
"I pretty much immediately took advantage of it because I just did not want to deal with the chaos of winter parking," said Christina Smith, who picked up her car from the Walker Art Center's underground ramp Sunday.
Pastor Daniel McKizzie of New Creation Baptist Church in Minneapolis says the free parking was fantastic. Two of the church's vans rode out the storm in a Minneapolis lot.
"It was great," said Kali Lentz, who parked her car in St. Paul. "I didn't have to think about parking. I didn't have to think about cleaning my car off to go to work."
Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Minneapolis's director of public works, says almost every free lot was filled to capacity during the week.
Now, the city plans to come up with guidelines for when it could deploy the strategy again. Anderson Kelliher says it would likely only be for more significant snowfalls.
"This was very successful," Anderson Kelliher said. "It was very helpful to get those cars off the street, and allowed our crews to be able to get a cleaner plow."
Minneapolis still issued nearly 4,000 tickets and towed more than 500 cars during the snow emergency, but Anderson Kelliher says that's lower than what they normally see during big snowstorms.
She says crews are in cleanup mode now, removing snow at the corners of intersections as well as going back over alleyways.