KENS TV in San Antonio reported yesterday that the New Braunfels City Council finally approved a parking permit plan for areas of New Braunfels in the vicinity of the Comal River. As I have previously blogged ("What Parking Permits Have to Do With Criminal Cases on the Comal River") this parking permit plan has less to do with traffic control than it does with a pleasing a faction within the city that is hostile to tourists.
Under the plan, you will not be able to park in areas near the Comal River unless you have first obtained a parking permit from, and approved by, the City of New Braunfels (parking permit applications forms are now available online). Daily visitor permits can be obtained, but must be gotten in advance, and are subject to city approval. In other words, tubers wanting to float the Comal River with their own tubes will have to be willing to hike in order to get access to river. If you are getting your tube from an outfitter, you will have to find an outfitter that has managed to secure alternative parking for its customers.
The City of New Braunfels, of course, has no plans to build or acquire any public parking close to the Comal River or downtown. This is just another of a long line of ordinances passed by the City of New Braunfels in order to harass tourists. Over the last decade, many people have moved into New Braunfels who have no direct ties to the local economy -- they work in San Antonio or Austin, they are retirees, etc. Rather than valuing river tubers as a boon to the local economy, they are viewed as a problem to be eliminated. Thus, you have seen a procession of weird ordinances only to be found in New Braunfels, such as the one regulating the size of a cooler.
Ordinances which allow police enforcing zero tolerance policies to issue criminal citations to people innocently minding their own business and not bothering anyone. Perhaps when the New Braunfels City Council manages to drive tourism elsewhere, and revenue from tourism dries up, the Council will begin to use its ordinance making power to actually protect public safety and welfare, rather than as tool for harassment.