[Vision2020] Business parking

[Pat Kraut]

So, if we get the NSA out and some other business goes in then when we have trouble finding a parking spot we have no complaints? I have lived here since 1962 and can tell you that the complaints about parking are not new. It is one of the reasons the UI let the mall go in and that didn't help either. The 1912 building razed would have provided some spots!

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joan Opyr 
  To: Vision2020 Moscow 
  Cc: Linda Pall ; Nancy Chaney ; Lois Blackburn ; John Dickinson 
  Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 7:03 PM
  Subject: [Vision2020] Business parking


  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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