The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) and Portland artist Moshow the Cat Rapper debuted a new rap and music video today called “Parking Kitty”, after the City’s new parking app, to encourage Portlanders to download and use the app for a more streamlined parking experience.
Portland’s embrace of Parking Kitty in its first four months has exceeded expectations. Users have given the application rave reviews on both the App Store and Google Play and 6 percent of all parking transactions are now being done through the app. By using the Parking Kitty app, users can take advantage of paying for their parking session with their debit and credit cards. In addition to paying for their parking sessions, people parking can receive ‘meow’ alerts when sessions are low on time, extend parking sessions remotely, view and manage parking history and multiple car sessions, and receive email receipts.
Parking Kitty can be used in all of the City of Portland’s parking districts, including Downtown, Northwest, Marquam Hill, the Lloyd District and the Central Eastside Industrial District as well as at Washington Park. Portland State University will officially open the app for use in its parking garages in time for students to arrive for the new school year, which begins Sept. 25.
The Parking Kitty music video features Moshow and his cat, Ravioli, driving and dancing in front of a 1956 Chevrolet Nomad while PBOT parking enforcement officers and Transportation Director Leah Treat dance in the background. The video was filmed and directed by Matt Giraud of Gyroscope Pictures in the RiverPlace district in Downtown Portland. The Parking Kitty rap and video were written and edited by Moshow. The video can be viewed online here: https://youtu.be/W4Hxewc_64M
“Moshow is quintessentially Portland and his love for cats was a perfect match for our new app,” said Transportation Director Leah Treat, “We are thrilled with this partnership and hope it inspires more Portlanders to take advantage of the receipt-free parking offered by Parking Kitty.”
“Washington Park has experienced excellent adoption of Parking Kitty, with nearly 9 percent of all transactions being completed via the app,” said Victor Sanders, Program Specialist at Portland Parks & Recreation. “Visitors to the Park no longer need to cut short a visit when taking their cats to smell the roses at the Rose Garden, finding their cat-like zen at the Japanese Garden or viewing the majestic wild cats at the Oregon Zoo – they simply add more time using their phone.”
“PSU supports a broad diversity of companion animals and travel modes,” says Ian Stude, Director of Transportation and Parking Service at Portland State University. “With roughly 4,000 parking stalls on our campus, we are excited to adopt Parking Kitty as one of our own.”
“Helping to bring the City of Portland’s vision to life through the Parking Kitty application has been enlightening,” said Bob Youakim, CEO at Passport. “The city has changed the game in how parking can be viewed and used as a tool to improve interactions within the community. It has been an honor to partner with the city on its technology initiatives in a fun and unique way.”
Portland partnered with Passport, the global leader in mobile payments for parking and transit, to develop its custom parking app, unique to the city’s cat culture.
The name Parking Kitty is a play on the meaning of kitty as a pool or reserve of money. It is also a nod to the Portland’s well-known reputation as a cat-friendly community.
The Parking Kitty app is free to download from the App Store and Google Play. People using the app can also manage their parking online at parkingkitty.com. Users will be charged a ten cent convenience fee to use the app to pay for a parking session.
Source: Portland Bureau of Transportation