DES MOINES, Iowa — Monday evening, the Des Moines City Council voted to establish a new parking ordinance in an effort to stop the "scooping the loop" tradition through the downtown area.
The council voted to make 12th Street a no parking zone on both sides between Grand Avenue and Walnut Street from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
This ordinance goes into effect this Friday.
Councilmember Joe Gatto expressed concerns about how this ordinance may impact small businesses along the area.
"I think there needs to be a design change, obviously, people have been scooping the loop for probably 50 or more years with the same circle that everyone has probably done one time in their life, or another, maybe not," Gatto said. "But restricting parking on one street that's close to a lot of restaurants in places where people need to park to be able to, to be a patron at some of these places that need businesses right now, especially with all the offices closed and I mean... basically none of them are even open for lunch, that this is, this is problematic, and this is a band-aid that we're going to put on it that really isn't probably going to do much."
Watch the full meeting on YouTube
Gatto and Councilmember Josh Mandelbaum negotiated the ordinance time from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. on the weekends to 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. instead.
The Des Moines Police Department recommended the ordinance to the City Council to help them out with the problems that occur almost nightly downtown.
