[Vision2020] Customers Need Parking

[Joe Campbell]

Maybe there would be parking downtown if they didn't allow schools in  
the business district. Oh, that's right. They don't!

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 30, 2009, at 9:28 AM, "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:

> Courtesy of today's (July 30, 2009) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with  
> special
> thanks to Tom Bode.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
>
> Customers need parking
>
> On July 6, the Moscow City Council passed a motion to reduce the  
> price of
> parking permits in the Jackson Street parking lots to $75 per year
> ($6.25/month or 21 cents/day).
>
> The chief reason given for inexpensive permits is to get employees and
> owners off of Main Street and into the Jackson Street lots. I  
> believe the
> effect of selling cheap permits will put many cars in these lots  
> that will
> sit there all day. In fact, this is what your City Council desires.  
> Either
> the council didn't think through, or just doesn't care, that the  
> effect of
> this reduces the customer's opportunity to find a parking space. If  
> spaces
> aren't turning over through the day, how will customers of the  
> downtown
> find parking?
>
> I was told this idea of cheap parking permits came from Moscow  
> Chamber of
> Commerce director Steven Hacker. I am shocked that the chamber would  
> push
> an idea that limits the downtown customers' opportunity to find  
> parking,
> so that the employees and owners can park in prime parking spaces. I  
> was
> taught in every aspect of my business education to put the customers
> first.
>
> In January 1978, Mayor Mann accepted a check from downtown  
> businesses to
> pay off the balance of the debt on the Jackson Street lots. The City
> Council passed a resolution in which they agreed to keep the Jackson
> Street lots for downtown customers.
>
> The current council, many of who claim to be pro-business, has now
> deviated 180 degrees from that agreement, by encouraging employees  
> to park
> in those lots.
>
> If you find over the next year you are having trouble finding a  
> space to
> park in the Jackson Street lots, make sure you let the mayor, her  
> staff,
> the council and the chamber know how you feel about it.
>
> Thomas Bode, Moscow
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
>
> Concerning the Jackson Street "Park it and Forget it" parking  
> lot . . .
>
> The fall semester for UI students, as well as NSA students, should  
> prove
> very interesting and, more importanly, convenient.
>
> A parking space may cost a student only 21 cents per day. How much  
> is the
> loss of that same parking space costing Main Street proprietors?
>
> Just another example of Moscow's pro-business city council.
>
> I guess we can always reopen Moscow's old livery stable at First and  
> Main.
>
> http://www.tomandrodna.com/Photos/1800s_FirstMain_Stable.jpg
>
> Seeya round town, Moscow
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> "The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to  
> change
> and the Realist adjusts his sails."
>
> - Unknown
>
>
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