Project Nashville: Street turned into 'Airbnb village,' leaves residents with no parking
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — Project Nashville is our year old look at how our community is affected by the unprecedented growth and change in the mid-state. Parking has become a huge problem, not just downtown but across the city. One man says his street has turned into an Airbnb village leaving himself and his neighbors with no place to park.
Kentucky, Florida, Pennsylvania. From across the country in vehicles both large and small converge on Archer street to begin to their Nashville vacation.
“Probably 75 percent of the homes there are non-owner occupied Airbnb’s,” said Danican Schweller who lives on Archer Street. “There aren’t a lot of traffic policy’s in place right now to benefit the residents of Nashville. A lot of our polices are focused on bringing in tourist at whatever cost to the residence.”
That’s why the residents of Archer Street recently got permission to begin permit only parking on the street. But that may not solve their problem. The fine for illegally parking is $25. It was just increase by Metro Council this week.
There’s only 5 Traffic Enforcement Officers who can right those tickets.
They only work Monday-Saturday from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“I could pay $15 dollars to park in this parking garage or I can pay this $10 citation to park right where I am and stay here for 4 days,” said Schweller.
It’s something the city council members like Colby Sledge has taken notice of. He recently displayed a picture of 12 parking tickets on the front seat of a repeat parking offenders car. He says the city does allow for cars parked illegally to be booted. But it’s not that simple.
“Do you know how many boots our traffic enforcement officers have access to?” asked Sledge.
“Zero!”
So what’s the answer? Metro Council admits they are still working on one?
“Traffic enforcement is ready to work on this. Multiple members of this council have said they are ready to work on this. We could be doing more,” Sledge said.
Metro police officers can write parking tickets, but the city would prefer that they spend their time on more serious violations.
