City Hall Garage

Since my last review, things have improved. They now have signs up that more clearly explain how to scan your QR code. I haven't witnessed any gate malfunctions in a very long time. Parking is now only $3 on Mondays and Fridays (I just park on the street for the other days since it's cheaper).

Reserved a spot online. $5. Thought that was great.
Problem was is that it didn't work when I got there. So I had to pay again. And it took that payment, but still didn't open the gate.
In the end I paid $15 for a "$5" spot.
Not a good deal. Terribly frustrating.

Evening parking is a flat $5 as of 3.27.2017. Yes, this does include when the Golden One has events. Spacious and clean it's a go to lot when in the area. It's an 15 minute stroll to the new arena and as a bonus you can do a couple pregame drinks at Pre-Flight on the cheap. As of this week they offer a first drink at $1 for a pint of Oly draft or PBR (not on draft). Leaving the grid was a complete breeze and not even a hint of post game traffic. The lady in the booth was very pleasant (just bumped this to 5 stars).

This place is terrible. Never anyone working here. Lost my ticket and had to wait 20 minutes for someone to come from god knows where, and then he wouldn't take my money. He wrote me a ticket that i had to pay by mail and cost five times the daily rate. It's extortion.

I guess it's fine if a government run lot wants to computerize tasks instead of giving jobs to Californians but they should make sure the computers can actually do the job. They should have at least one human in a four story parking garage. (Imagine if a security situation came up--i guess you'd just be screwed.) But if that is too much to ask, it's not hard to add a "lost ticket" option to your dumb computer.

Be warned, this garage will milk every penny they can. I paid for my parking, went to the 7th floor to get into my car, came down with said car and the machine said I now owed another $1.50. Mind you, it's $1.50/30 minutes. I may be slow, but I am not this slow.

So I get in line to speak to the attendant and explain what I assume is honestly a mistake on the part of the machine. She says, no, you paid at 11:55 and it's 12:20, so you now owe $3! I'm really struggling with the math here. Is this one of those new fangled Common Core problems everyone is complaining about?

So I ask what the grace period is to get to your car from the machine. The attendant says, 20 minutes. I explain that my ticket says I have been in the lot two minutes over 20 minutes and you know I've been here speaking to you for at least 5, so I don't owe a thing, and there is no way I should have to pay to wait in line. The reply I got was, "well, are you willing to pay $1.50? Cause I'll take a $1.50". At this point I realize my car is hostage and so am I, leading to visions of crashing through the turnstile like some kind of action hero in my mid sized sedan.

Instead, I ask to speak to a manager. And this is where they earn the one star. The manager then comes clean and says the "grace" period from machine to car is 10 minutes. Heaven forbid the elevator is slow, you're on the 8th floor, or there is a line to exit the garage!

She excuses me this one time only for what I can only presume is now up to $4.50 on top of my initial payment.

Clean, well-lit and found a spot right away. Vey stress free! Got in and out of the parking easily. Just a few minute walk to Golden 1 Center.