I have been thinking about ways to create a passive income to battle rising costs. Inflation increased 3.3% percent in May from a year ago and while that doesn’t sound like a huge number, to put it in context, consumer price inflation rose 21.75% between January of 2020 and May of 2024 … thanks Biden!

I think I have stumbled on a great idea that will help me offset some of the expenses I incur owning property. You know we pay taxes, insurance, repairs and upkeep. I think I am going to install the pay-to-park mobile app on a sign in my driveway. I think there is opportunity to defray some of the costs associated with my investment.

There are plenty of parking spaces in the neighborhood, but when they fill up with my neighbors’ guests during birthday parties, potlucks, graduations and summer parties, I could offer a spot that is close to their door so folks don’t have to walk as far. For a nominal fee you can have a primo spot by just scanning a bar code on a sign with your smartphone.

I told my wife that she will have to have a sticker plainly visible at all times on her car so she doesn’t get towed. How am I going to monetize my investment and help cover my property costs if I let random folks park on my property for free when there are plenty of spots a short walk away? Yes, I’ll be forced to tow cars that ignore the signs and park in the two or three spots I think I can squeeze out of my driveway.

So, please don’t accuse me of hiring a predatory towing company. A quick search online will reveal multitudes of local forum members and keyboard warriors furiously spewing at tow companies, chastising their owners and using “predatory towing” as a scapegoat for their own lapses in judgment. When a spot is marked “Tow Away Zone” or “Pay to Park,” the property owner has every right to tow any vehicle parked there. Only leaving your vehicle for a few minutes does not make it legal. Neither does leaving a note on your windshield reading “Back soon, please don’t tow!”

It seems to me that some downtown businesses have thought of the same idea, but I might be the first to put up pay-to-park at my home. I hear on the scanner more times than I can count, of homeowners calling the authorities to have an unfamiliar or abandoned car towed from their driveway.

If it goes well and I weather the social media firestorm it is sure to bring on Facebook, I might suggest my mom and sisters do the same. Who knows, maybe some downtown businesses that have employee lots that sit empty at night, save for the revelers and partiers that have been known to take over a lot and trash it and the property, might find this as a solution.

In this country we have incredibly high expectations for parking. We expect it to be very convenient, immediately available and free. It would be unimaginable to hold any other business to this standard. I know, I’ve tried to hold the United State Postal Service to their word and contract for years now and I pay them!

According to my quick Google search online, we are a country with more than 250 registered passenger vehicles and at the very least, 800 million parking spots. That same search yielded the fun fact that the average American spends 614 hours a year driving. I’m sure some of that time is lost searching for that ever elusive parking spot closest to door.

I don’t know how many cars there are in Bowling Green, but there are over 1,200 free parking spots within a few blocks of each other, according to Downtown BGKY. I am sure the majority of them are in the downtown parking structure. They have a map that showcases free public parking lots/structures, free street parking and free private lots that are only available after 5 p.m. on weekdays and on weekends.

And now to the real reason I am writing on the hot-button parking topic again. The property owners of the lot at Eighth Avenue and College Street have decided to make it a pay to park lot from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Monday through Friday and from sun up to sundown on the weekends. All of our employees will have a sticker that allows them to park there anytime and our customers are welcome to park in the customer spots during business hours without fear of being towed.

What will this do for me? I’ll have a clean parking lot and hopefully, over time, all of the people looking for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Regional Driver Licensing Office at 360 E. Eighth Ave. Suite 111 (connected to the parking structure ironically enough) will not park in our employees’ parking spots during business hours. And the property owners … they will be able to recoup some of the money they spend owning the property, paying taxes, insurance and maintenance.

You can still park for free – just a little farther away.

— Daily News Publisher Joe Imel can be reached at (270) 783-3273 or via email at joe.imel@ bgdailynews.com.