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Norfolk tries to ease downtown parking pain

Posted at 7:11 PM, Dec 02, 2013
and last updated 2013-12-03 05:45:33-05

The Jewish Mother on Granby Street has closed up shop.

“It's kind of sentimental,” said Jim Woodling whose family owns the restaurant.

Woodling helped pack up over 3 years of memories into boxes.

He says parking is too expensive Downtown and there’s just not enough of it.

And, he says, he believes it turns away customers.

"If the city, if they thought more about providing a good way for business to thrive down here rather than their immediate, in front of their face ‘I need my parking money,’ I think that businesses would be more successful down here," said Woodling.

This holiday season the city of Norfolk wants to ease that pain a little bit by extending monthly parking pass hours.

The Downtown Norfolk Council calls the effort “Stay and Play.” City officials hope by extending the monthly parking pass hours until 8 pm, it might encourage more people to stay downtown longer to shop and eat.

While business owners along Granby St. admit giving people more incentives helps, many of them side with Woodling saying even more needs to be done.

"It's just inconvenient most of all. Sometimes it's hard to get into the parking garages or people just don't have cash,” explained Aaron Schools, who works at Bobbie B’s Deli.

“I think, personally, if they eliminated all the meters, the money, all the tax money from the people that would come here that will generate enough tax money so you don't need the meters outside,” said Thomas Glaser, owner of Platinum Salon and Fuzion Ink.

The Jewish Mother will be opening a new restaurant in Williamsburg in March.

Related: 

Norfolk’s Jewish Mother Backstage closes