Downtown parking problem is perplexing
Downtown parking was the focus of a recent sparsely attended open house put on by the Grand Forks-East Grand Forks Metropolitan Planning Organization. Those are the folks responsible for the recent battle over Grand Forks' population.
At the open house, they had a couple of eye-opening graphics that showed how people were using available parking. It's clear that everybody hates those parking ramps. Check out the ramp across the street from Central High School. Cars packed the on-street parking right outside the ramp but, inside, the ramp was less than half full.
MPO executive director Earl Haugen said many people don't think the ramps are conveniently located -- too far from businesses -- and there are safety concerns.
I'll say there are. The day the MPO held that open house, one of my colleagues at the Herald had his satellite radio stolen from his car. The security guard was even making his rounds that day.
The weird thing is I asked one of the consultants that's working on the MPO parking study. He thought the real issue is people don't know those ramps are public parking and the crime thing is overrated. Maybe if you're from a big city like Winnipeg, which is where the consultants are based.
If you want to tell the MPO your parking woes, click here.
At the open house, they had a couple of eye-opening graphics that showed how people were using available parking. It's clear that everybody hates those parking ramps. Check out the ramp across the street from Central High School. Cars packed the on-street parking right outside the ramp but, inside, the ramp was less than half full.
MPO executive director Earl Haugen said many people don't think the ramps are conveniently located -- too far from businesses -- and there are safety concerns.
I'll say there are. The day the MPO held that open house, one of my colleagues at the Herald had his satellite radio stolen from his car. The security guard was even making his rounds that day.
The weird thing is I asked one of the consultants that's working on the MPO parking study. He thought the real issue is people don't know those ramps are public parking and the crime thing is overrated. Maybe if you're from a big city like Winnipeg, which is where the consultants are based.
If you want to tell the MPO your parking woes, click here.
posted by Tu-Uyen at 4:31 PM
11 Comments:
I've done a little copycat story on this topic. Hope you don't mind.
Not everyone has lived here for that long, so we do not all know about the garages and their availability. For instance, I didn't know they were free until about 7 or 8 months into my time in Grand Forks. The information is not very clearly stated.
Why not large "FREE PUBLIC PARKING 24/7" signs?
Yes, the number of signs stating RESERVED PARKING - VIOLATORS WILL BE TOWED inside the parking garage I use regularly would lead me to believe that I am taking chances parking there.
If I can park there without getting towed, a sign saying so would be helpful.
Which ramps are free? I thought they were $75/month.
I was the first anonymous, but forgot to login. Sorry.
I drove by the ramp near the luxury Opera apartments/porno shop today, and didn't see a single sign indicating that the ramp right there is open to the public.
I hate how this has exploded into a problem when there isn't a problem at all. For example, I have parked downtown in the same lot for 2 years. This lot has a few spots open all day when the adjoining streets are packed. It is between two office buildings with 27 parking spaces according to the MPO's presentation. There are, however, spaces that are reserved for businesses, but they are properly marked. A few of them are no longer tenants in the neighboring buildings, which some people in my building have noticed and use those spaces since they obviously would go unused. Anyway, this morning I parked there again, and later in the morning left for a meeting (I come and go often during the day). As I was leaving, a guy chased me down and crossly said that I can't park there or "he" will have me towed. I asked him if there were signs indicating this and he angrily said "I own this lot and I will have you towed. Don't park here again." I’m assuming he owns the Riverside building (yeah, the one that is mostly empty). I again asked him if there were signs (just to piss him off, because he obviously is one of those arrogant a-holes and I like doing those kinds of things to those types of people). He then pointed to two new signs at the front entrance that were put up this morning that say “NO PARKNG VIOLATORS TOWED AT OWNERS EXPENSE.” He could have been polite about it and I would have been fine, be he had to be a prick about it. If the signage is enforced, I guess parking lot 2B with 27 spaces on the MPO’s presentation is out of bounds, even for the few tenants that are left in “his” building. It sickens me that he is using the complaints of lack of downtown parking to exploit “his” parking lot. For the last two years, there hasn’t been a problem with using this lot, even when there were more tenants in his building. I wonder why his tenants keep leaving “his” building?
I think that the parking "problems" are largely cultural. Meaning, people in Grand Forks are used to parking mere steps away from their final destination. While I'm on the topic, people fail to factor in the maintenance cost of private businesses maintaining their parking lots. Blacktop repair, sweeping, striping, etc. They're all costs of doing business. Do downtown businesses pay the city for the city-owned parking resources?
I'm told downtown businesses aren't paying for the city-owned lots, even though they're supposed to, because they say their customers aren't using those lots.
Tu-Uyen...what's this about the city talking with a potential tenant for the Civic Auditorium???
I haven't a clue. When the city is talking with a prospective tenant, they usually like to keep it hush-hush. I don't push them on it because, well, a lot of these prospects don't pan out. Also, businesses like secrecy and I wouldn't want to scare businesses away. All lease agreements have to go to the council in the end so it's not like deals are struck behind closed doors.
As a resident of Grand Forks' Downtown area, or what I like to call "Bartown," I can say that the biggest parking situation that faces me comes from 2 sources: the dykes and the bars. Earlier this year, the City of Grand Forks declared eminent domain over the land behind our building on N 3rd St to construct the dykes. In return for destroying our parking spaces, the city made the lot on the southeast corner of the 1st Ave and 3rd St a permit only lot. Unfortunately the lot lacked spaces and only some of the residents got spots. Fortunately, the streets of Grand Forks typically have ample parking (even though most of it is a 2 hour limit and the rest is a 30 minute limit), with the exception of night time. When the deluge of drinkers decends on Bartown, parking dries up fast, especially on the streets that are legal for overnight use. Did you know that a large chunk of downtown N 3rd St is off limits to overnight parking 4 nights a week from Demers to University? The
same holds true for all NW/SE streets in the downtown area. The signs claim street cleaning as the reason but I have not seen streets clean enough that I would say then were cleaned every other day. The other streets, or avenues I guess, are off limits 3 nights a week (with monday nights/tuesday mornings overlapping). I would agree with the findings of the survey, that there are plenty of parking spaces in Bartown, just not when the residents need them (note: the placards posted on the front of all parking ramps expressly prohibit overnight parking).
[Note: This is Tu-Uyen. I posted this. Joseph sent me this in an e-mail and I asked if he minded that I posted it. He said no.]
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