And Now It's Time For Your Semi-Regular Parking Rate Increase at Love Field Airport

Two years ago, the council's Economic Development Committee took a long, hard look at parking rates at Love Field and agreed with the recommendation that it gradually hike prices "over several years" for several reasons -- among them, Love Field's just too cheap, and it'll help offset some of the costs of updating the airport. Which is why the 3,079-space Garage A, the alleged short-term lot closest to the terminal, went from $10 a day to $12 in October '08, and why 3,965-space Garage B jumped from $7 to $8.

The plan was, and remains, to keep on increasing the pricing spread between the two garage's prices in order to shift people toward Garage B -- especially since, between the end of the Wright Amendment in 2014 and the Love Field Modernization Program scheduled to wrap around the same time, parking at the short-term lot's expected to get even more jam-packed, if such a thing's possible. Either get people the F outta A, which is usually close to full-up during peak hours, and back into B, or they'll have to build a new garage. And no one wants that.

Which brings us to this morning's Economic Development Committee meeting, in which Aviation Administration Director Dan Weber proposes yet another parking rate hike: jumping Garage A to $14 a day, and bumping B to $10. And even that, says the briefing, is awful cheap compared to Dallas-Fort Worth International ($17 a day short-term), Austin Bergstrom ($20) and Houston Hobby ($17). If council says okee-doke on September 8, new rates go into effect October 1. I know, I know -- what about the People Mover? Got a spare quarter of a billion? That's what happened.