CARLISLE, Pa. (WHTM) — Borough leaders touted the benefits of the then-soon-to-come new parking kiosks and an associated app, and no one disputes them: You can, for example, take the parking you already paid for with you anywhere within the zone.
But some businesses and patrons say the trade-offs more than offset the benefits — and the businesses say that’s costing them money.
“We look at our customers. We see them parking. We know what they’re going to eat,” said Leah Mazias, who works with generations of her husband’s family at the Hamilton Restaurant. “We see them trying to use the parking meters. They get frustrated. Then they get back in their car and leave.”
Know what they’re going to eat? Yes, when customers have been coming as long as Michael and Marylyn Lopato, who moved to Boiling Springs in 1974 and have been eating at the Hamilton since shortly thereafter.
They love the restaurant enough — it’s “like being at home,” Michael Lopato said — that they put up with the new parking setup, complete with mid-block kiosks that accept credit cards, cash and coins and a related mobile phone app, but they understand why other people might give up.