[Vision2020] Business parking

[Joan Opyr]

On 14 Dec 2005, at 05:56, g. crabtree wrote:

> With regard to my brief answer to the question of allowing N.S.A. the 
> right to have it's students and staff park downtown, I really don't 
> see how it could confuse you. It strikes me as massively unfair to 
> single them out for some kind of burdensome parking restriction. All 
> businesses downtown us up parking to one degree or another. 
> Restaurants, coffee shops, and apartments all require parking. I 
> suspect that residents at the Moscow Hotel use up far more parking in 
> the Jackson st. lot than the school does and there is still plenty of 
> left over spaces.

The reason NSA should be "singled out" in terms of parking, Mr. 
Crabtree, is because NSA is not a business.  It is a college.  Its 
students don't park for an hour and then leave; they come and park for 
several hours.  Some park in the Jackson lot all day.  The businesses 
dependent on the Jackson lot -- Bookpeople, Paradise Creek Bicycles, 
Sweet Peas and Sage, the Wild Hare, and the various restaurants in the 
Central Business District need that parking for their customers.  If 
people can't find parking downtown, then people will stop shopping 
downtown.  They'll go instead to the mall.

U of I students and employees pay for the privilege of parking on 
campus.  NSA students pay nothing to park in the Jackson Street lot.  
What's more, their parking is subsidized by the tax-paying businesses 
downtown.  This is unfair; it's detrimental to downtown retail; and 
it's a pain in the ass for both customers and shop-keepers.  According 
to city zoning ordinance, NSA should not be in the Central Business 
District.  If the code is amended to allow them to stay, then something 
must be done to ensure that NSA's 150 to 200 students (their projected 
growth) don't clog up parking for retail.  Surely as the owner of the 
Lock Shop in the Third Street Mall, you can appreciate having your 
business parking hogged up by non-customers.  For years, Food Co-Op 
customers parked in front of your shop despite the clear signs asking 
them not to.  (I didn't park in front of your shop; I respected your 
signs advising me not to.  I also didn't want to be towed.)

BTW, I apologize for suggesting you might benefit from a dose of 
Fletcher's Castoria.  My friend, Dr. Seuss, has advised me that re: the 
Mack Trailer Park evictions, constipation is not your problem -- it's 
just that your heart is four sizes too small.  The good doctor suggests 
a diet of Roast Beast and a rousing chorus of "Bah-hoo Doray" with 
Cindy Lou Who.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.joanopyr.com

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