Inconveniencing people is not a method to attract people downtown or an
incentive to get them out of their cars. If you want more people walking
around downtown, then build more housing downtown. There are plenty of ugly
parking lots and vacant land all over the core that could accommodate more
residential development. And if you don't want me to do a quick errand
downtown, then just say so, I'll be off to Bloomington or Rosedale. Parking
isn't a problem there.
However, let's assume Ms. Goodman is right. If she is, why didn't we have
the foresight to see it and correct the problem in advance, years ago. The
answer to the question is that we don't have foresight and this isn't the
solution to the problem. I do not buy Ms. Goodman's arguments. The traffic
jams are not due to cheap parking meters, they are do to an ineffective
council and administration that continues to be unable to manage multiple
tasks. Our council president claimed a few Strib's ago that we didn't
really have a deficit. Now we see parking fees rise. I almost laughed when
I read that article this morning, and then I realized they weren't joking.
What will be next? This is only the first of a number of fees that will
rise because we've been frittering away our money on private developments in
the greatest era of personal and corporate wealth accumulation while our
city has suffered in delivering basic services. Don't you just wonder???
What's even worse, is those who come next into office in this city will have
to spend all their time cleaning up this mess. And we'll probably see tax
increases there as well.
Russ Peterson
"Paying 10% more and getting at least 10% less."
Ward 9
Standish
R U S S E L L P E T E R S O N D E S I G N
"You can only fly if you stretch your wings."
Russell W. Peterson, RA, CID
Founder
3857 23rd Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55407
612-724-2331
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Goodman, Lisa R
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2000 3:22 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: RE: parking meters
What would dramatically improve livability downtown is for people to get out
of their cars and walk, bike or use transit! A person out of their cars is
what will provide life on the streets.
More people would be inclined to do this if parking was more expensive and
if there were more and better transit options. Raising parking meter rates
would help visitors on short trips because it would be more expensive to
park all day on the street thus more meter turnover. If we added more
meters on the street the result would be more traffic, especially during
rush hour and there would be less room in the right of way, than there
already is, for bikes and busses.
As to downtown livability, clearly we would experience better air quality
with less cars stuck in traffic.
Lisa Goodman
Downtown Resident
-----Original Message-----
From: John Rocker [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2000 2:53 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: parking meters
What struck me about the Strib article was Lisa Goodman's
comment that
increasing rates could encourage more people to use ramps
and thereby
alleviate the congested downtown streets. To me, that flies
in the face of
creating a more livable downtown.
In my uninformed opinion, raising the rates is fine, but we
should be
dramatically increasing the number of on-street parking
spaces in the core
of downtown to make quick stops easier, provide some life on
the streets and
buffer the pedestrians from traffic.
If congestion is a problem during rush hour, limit the
parking to non rush
hours and heavily ticket the cars that haven't been moved.
(This works well
in Washington DC.) During non rush hours, all I see are wide
open streets
and No Parking signs.
John Rocker
JCR Realty Advisors/
National Survey Systems
3211 Fremont Avenue South
Minneapolis MN 55408
