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Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Local News Parking blues, or good news?
Posted by Anthony Lane on Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 1:14 PM
Through long months of economic blahs, parking near the Indy's office on South Nevada Avenue has been a breeze. Not to spoil things for those in the know, but there's a fair amount of free parking southeast of downtown on Vermijo Avenue, Weber Street and others. Most days, arriving at around 8:30 ensures an easy find.
But that's changed this week, as a new contingent of early risers has descended on this neighborhood.
Anyone out there know what has changed? Is it just that a bunch of jury trials have commenced at the nearby courthouse? Are people starting new jobs? Could it be actual good economic news?
For the record, I spent five minutes on hold before getting to ask about this at the Fourth Judicial District Courthouse. In return, I received only an unilluminating "I don't know" from a clerk who sounded annoyed.
Comments (7)
Showing 1-7 of 7
This happens periodically every few months and only seems to last for a week or so at a time. It's extremely weird and I've never been able to figure it out.
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Posted by
_bex
on 01/12/2010 at 4:16 PM
Bus.Lines.Cut.
It's been made impossible to be in Downtown after hours unless you're a driver. Or close enough. Not like there's actually enough porking space (I started to correct that to parking but it made me laugh so I left it.) to begin with. It also doesn't help that so many in town drive Great Big SUKs errr "V"s ... to an office job. And write it off on their taxes so we, the People, get to pay their gas money and their parking money just so they can impress other idiots. They aren't impressing anybody else.
They're also not the majority, but due to the square-footage of their wheelbases they take up more room than the rest of us put together. That's called being a "hog" and in Civilized Societies it's frowned upon. Fortunately for the Hogs, we don't actually have a Civil Society.
Posted by
brotherjonah2
on 01/12/2010 at 10:17 PM
It has nothing to do with the buses since we're talking m-f business hours here. And I see most of the people parking down here are walking to the courthouse - so it's something going on there. Plain and simple.
I don't know what suvs and writing off gas on taxes have to do with any of this.
Clearly you're an angry person and are desperate for a venue to express that. I don't think this blog post is it.
Posted by
_bex
on 01/13/2010 at 11:16 AM
Even during business hours, people who Might Maybe be in downtown after the last bus rolls out at 6, have to either have their own cars or have cab fare. Colorado Springs has the parking blues for a lot of reasons, one of which is narrow streets, wide cars, and not enough off-street parking to accommodate those cars. That sounds like three reasons but they flow together.
Now, with the bus lines being scaled way way way back, it's going to get worse.
There's going to be more cars on the downtown streets, equals fewer available parking slots. Simple math really.
And yeah, the people who drive the Wide Rides do take up more than their share of the road and more than their share of the parking space. The tax-break subsidies we give them are just icing on their cake (but not Ours)
If there's going to be a positive change to that, it's going to involve more public transportation and restrictions on driving (and parking) on downtown streets.
I personally don't feel the City Leadership has the balls to do it. Manitou does, they had to because they were forced into it by an even more severe lack of available space.
We have more space here lower down the hill, but it still isn't infinite space. And Colorado Springs isn't alone in facing that issue. Dallas and Ft Worth and El Paso, with double-digit times the available acreage, are facing that problem. And they're not doing any better at resolving it. Because too many people equate the single occupant Bus to be a Status Symbol and "freedom".
The solutions are going to make some people very very sad but they'll have to be implemented anyway. Having a HumVee Cruising Binge in the meantime isn't going to make them any happier.
You would think, with Downtown dying on the vine like it is, that there would be less traffic and more parking spaces, but I guess not. Doesn't appear to be anyway. The congestion just gets worse.
Posted by
brotherjonah2
on 01/13/2010 at 11:00 PM
Oh, and Monday-Friday business hours aren't the same for people who work in the service industries downtown, like the restaurants and bars etc. Which are becoming the heaviest use of labor downtown. Typical shifts at a McJob don't start and end within the hours the bus is running. More cars = Less Available Parking. You're welcome.
Posted by
brotherjonah2
on 01/13/2010 at 11:09 PM
Mr. Lane is an Independent employee that was referring to the m-f 8-5 business hours though. I'll paraphrase since you're obviously confused: Typically parking downtown by the Indy is easy as there are many parking spaces available m-f 8-5. Now, within the last week, however, almost all of them have been taken especially if you get here after 8:30.
I mentioned that this happens periodically throughout the year, every year and it must have something to do with the courthouse because that's where I see everyone heading. Within weeks, it always dies down and frees up parking once again.
It's as basic is that. And now you're talking about city leadership, Dallas, Ft. Worth, El Paso, status symbols, freedom, and random business hours THAT DON'T APPLY TO THIS BLOG POST.
What. the. fuck.
Also - what's with the Random Capitalization?? It's annoying as all hell. If you want to appear more intelligent and be taken more seriously I recommend stopping that.
YOU'RE welcome.
Posted by
_bex
on 01/14/2010 at 10:18 AM
The dude asked for an opinion. Didn't have any specific name on who was being asked.
The opinions requested were, was this going to be a persistent occurrence. Answer, Yes.
What might be a cause (if not the cause) and I answered.
There will be more parking issues and it did in fact start at the same time as the bus service was slashed.
If that's merely a coincidence, there would be no harm done by noting it or by speculating on whether or not it is. Annoying people is a very good way to make them think, jolt them out of their complacency.
Posted by
brotherjonah2
on 01/14/2010 at 11:31 AM
