• Candi’s BZB Cafe is challenging the city’s public parking policy, which owner Candi Blake says is hurting her business.
• Blake says her customers have been stripped of the parking spaces that businesses like hers have to foot the bill for — most recently when the city ordered Henry Ford Health employees to park in Municipal Lot 9 behind her coffee shop under construction at One Jackson Square.
• City officials say businesses have no right to parking spaces in city lots and that the city must work with everyone if challenges arise.
• The video shows Candi’s BZB Cafe, Municipal Lot 9, near the cafe, owner Candi Blake and Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Beth Kuiper.

(Below is a transcript of the entire broadcast)

A downtown Jackson businessman says his business has suffered this summer because of the city’s handling of downtown parking.

“It was eight weeks without money.”

— Candi Blake, owner of Candi’s BZB Cafe,

to the Jackson City Council

City officials say businesses cannot dictate how parking space in the city is used.

“We’re all in a bit of a slump because we haven’t made any money in eight weeks,” Blake told me.

In August, she told the City Council that the decision to have Henry Ford Health employees park in the Municipal Lot 9 parking lot behind her business had led to a significant drop in sales this summer. She says the lot was filled to capacity every day.

“Customers complain they have to walk a mile to get to the restaurant…,” Blake said.

City officials referred me to Beth Kuiper, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority, to talk about the details of parking.

Kuiper admitted that “Henry Ford actually used this site during construction, and the city worked with Henry Ford so they could park in different lots.”

Kuiper says the parking spaces are not designated specifically for one business.

“These are city-owned parking lots,” he notes. “They’re for the community, for visitors, for people like Candi and her staff, for residents. So it can get a little crowded at times. But at the time, they were definitely open spaces, and anyone could use them.”

The City of Jackson put it this way in its statement:

“When there is a major parking challenge, as was the case at Henry Ford Health, it is up to the city to step in and redirect vehicles to alleviate further parking issues. One company cannot dictate how we manage our city parking lots. Businesses do not have a right to parking spaces in our public parking lots.”

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