The
conversation about parking ebbs and flows. A few years back there
was discussion of building a multi-level parking garage off
Bailey Avenue. The current discussion has taken on a new
dimension.
On the one hand there is the danger of
burying a stream near the Boys & Girls Club & creating
"too much asphalt".
On the other hand, there is an
idea, voiced by the First Selectman, to create a pocket park frontage
to hide more parking spaces on Catoonah -- a creative idea.
However, I have a different take. I'm not sure there is a
parking problem. I think there is a people problem. We chose
Ridgefield to live in, not for parking convenience.
This
is what I saw On Monday, July 17th at 1:00:40 pm.
Even though
these are snaps of one sliver of one summer week day, it still
raises the question (in my mind) whether we really do need more
parking spaces.
If it's for weekends or community
events, maybe we should consider walking more. We know taking
10,000 steps daily is a healthy goal.
I ask myself, if
downtown is so crowded on Saturdays, why are so many
businesses going out of business? Is everyone having coffee at
Tazza?
And what about weekday parking? Here's something else I
saw at 11:04:27 the same day.
A woman walked out of
this Main Street establishment and erased the chalk parking mark from
her right front tire.
While
I'm sure she's not alone in this kind of activity, I submit that
before we spend one additional taxpayer cent on more parking, we
FIRST address the people problem. Otherwise we
risk transforming our quaint village into a parking lot to
service the lazy and inconsiderate.
Jan Rifkinson
169 New
Road
I believe that we do need a parking garage. A town in NJ built a garage that looked like an office bldg. Why we can not put in on the back wall on Piccolo parking lot. Wasted space and would solve the parking problem, or do what other towns have done, put in parking meters that only take credit or dept cards
ReplyDeleteThe town would make money and people would not take advantage of parking
Thanks for posting your comments.
ReplyDeleteThe central question is whether we do have a parking problem. Like I state in the article, I'm not so sure but I don't know that for a fact.
What evidence do you have to support your notion that we do have a parking problem?
#1 Personally an office building in Ridgefield doesn't do much for the aesthetics of the town IMHO. (It would be the first office bldg in town AFAIK.) #2 Who's going to pay for it? #Who is going to maintain it?
Putting in parking meters is an alternative. Who would pay for them? Would they just be on Main Street or in all the private parking lots that are behind Main Street? Do the property owners get a cut of the money earned in those meters?
IMO they would change some of the quaintness of our Main street so, although it is an alternative, I -- for one -- wouldn't be in favor of installing them.
You mention wasted space. I wonder what is wrong with "wasted space"? We have a lot of wasted space in Ridgefield by design. It's called open space.
Let's continue the dialog.