Downtown Salisbury business owners speaking out following city parking decision

SALISBURY, Md. – The City of Salisbury announced paid parking is back, leaving some downtown business owners ready to leave.

Peach, owner of Crybaby Tattoo in Downtown Salisbury, was already preparing to close up shop and relocate. But hearing that the city rolled out its plans to charge business owners and patrons for downtown garage and plaza parking was the final nail in the coffin. Her shop has stood on Main Street for over a year.

“The way that I see it is I have a big staff here, and I always want to have more people, because that’s where you go to grow and improve. I feel like if I hire people, as soon as they find out they’re going to have to pay $700-900 year just to park at work for a couple of hours, they’re not going to want to work here,” said Peach.

Anyone parking in the garage between 9am-4pm during the week can expect to pay $2 per hour, or $10 per day.

Peach said with the nature of her business, her clients can be put at risk if they have to worry about parking.

“Maybe a tattoo is going to be 2.5 hours. I don’t think someone should pay $10 to have to stay for a half an hour extra, and I don’t think it would be very safe for my client to walk out while I’m in the middle of altering their body with needles, to walk outside with an open wound, to move their car,” said Peach.

Peach said the city should have consulted with business owners before finalizing this decision, that she believes may cost downtown business.

“Maybe you should ask the people around you what they need, instead of what you guys want. Not a lot of people have a lot of money right now,” said Peach.

WMDT reached out to the city for more information but could not provide it at this time. You can pay for parking by texting “SBYPG” to 25023, or by card at one of the pay stations.