When Ty Myers, owner of Fenix Tattoo, put a sign in the window of his Pioneer Square shop sarcastically thanking Mayor Mike McGinn for the neighborhood's new $3.50-an-hour parking rate, it didn't draw much attention.
So Myers put up a bigger sign with a more direct message: "Fuck you Mayor McGinn."
That did the trick: Myers was swarmed last week by media looking to interview him.
He told them the increase is going to kill business in Pioneer Square at a time when merchants are already struggling and face construction to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
"It's just bad on bad," he said.
McGinn originally proposed an increase to $4 an hour, but backed down to $3.50 after appeals from local business owners and The Alliance for Pioneer Square.
The increase is supposed to free up parking spaces and, in turn, draw more business. But Myers said the Seattle Department of Transportation justified the increase with a bogus parking report.
The report says that on average, 57 percent of Pioneer Square's street parking spots are occupied each day. It also says that, according to SDOT, 91 percent of the district's parking spots are filled at peak hour, based on a one-day parking study conducted in November.
The 91 percent figure outrages Myers. SDOT "dummied the report," he said.
SDOT spokesperson Rick Sheridan acknowledges the number is an extrapolation. The parking survey showed a peak-hour occupancy of 84 percent in Pioneer Square. SDOT added 7 percentage points to that because parking usage is low in November, Sheridan said.
Before the new parking rates took effect, Myers went to a city council meeting to object.
He wasn't the only one. Sara Qureshi, co-owner of Shotgun Ceremonies, a Vegas-style wedding parlor that opened in Pioneer Square in August, said she and her partner also spoke out against the rate hike.
One of Myers' "Thank you Mayor McGinn" signs now hangs in the window of Shotgun Ceremonies. Qureshi is incensed that city officials raised Pioneer Square's parking rate while at the same time lowering Belltown's rate from $2.50 to $2. Parking there is impossible to find, she said.
Pioneer Square is already struggling, Qureshi said: "We just think it's going to kill business."