Parking Meter Rate Increases

[ML North]

Someone recently expressed that they wanted to take pictures Downtown to prove that there are in fact people spending their evenings in Market Square and the Cultural District. I wish I would have done that last night. A few observations:

• It was a cold, rainy, and rather miserable evening
  
  
• The bars and Restaurants along Penn Avenue were very busy. Seviche, August Wilson's, Nine on Nine, Sixth Penn all seemed to be packed. I was hanging out at Sharp Edge and both the dining room and bar area were full.
  
  
• Every street parking space between Penn, Liberty, Sixth, and Tenth Streets was taken. I eventually parked in the garage near Ninth Street and paid a flat rate of $5.
  
  
• One of the Cultural Trust's "Gallery Crawls" was held last evening, and it seemed to be rather heavily attended.
  
  

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Anyone claiming Downtown's nightlife has been in decline in the last few years has absolutely no credibility with me, because I have also been witness during that time and know that is the opposite of the truth.

Absolutely co-sign on this. I first got here in '95 as an 18 year old and much more is going on in downtown proper now than was then. The Strip has taken a step back I think but the Southside has really blow up...but I digress.

My only explanation for a statement like that is that it's a natural by-product of getting older. Everything used to be better then, more lively. That's always the perception when you're younger, say 20s-30s. Now you're older, crankier, different things upset you and nothing is as great as it used to be. All of you friends, also now older and crankier, feel then same way that you do so it must be true. I mean, all the bars have tv's in them now. You can't park for free anymore. All the meters are open but the garages take 3 hours to get out of. Nobody goes there; it's too crowded. Litter all over the place. Nowhere to eat or live or buy groceries. Any evidence to the contrary is just booster-ism. You see, you don't understand how great it used to be because you weren't here so you can't possibly have a knowledgeable opinion on how bad it is now, even though you're here now.

Sometimes, the logic is dizzying.

"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle" — George Orwell

[DaBurgh]

8am - 10pm .. heck why not just 24 hour enforcement, not much difference at this point!

[greg42]

Originally Posted by Lobick

Absolutely co-sign on this. I first got here in '95 as an 18 year old and much more is going on in downtown proper now than was then. The Strip has taken a step back I think but the Southside has really blow up...but I digress.

Yeah, sounds about right. Maybe if you said the past 25 years or so, I could buy it. It's possible that maybe more was going on downtown in the 80s, before I got here, and I couldn't argue otherwise. But I got here in 1991 and have always spent a lot of time downtown. In the early years I lived downtown, until about 1997 or 1998. I know how dead it was then compared to now. I used to walk home from work at midnight or so, very dead. (Also dead at 4am, but no surprise there. ) Or even when I might work daylight and into the evening, also dead in the typical mid-evening times.

Whatever this comparison is, it's certainly not overall deader now than 15 years ago, hell no. Perhaps there is one specific type of thing some of these guys have in mind, not sure. Maybe the old timers wish Liberty Ave was still the red light district.

[Lobick]

Interesting take on why the City should get out of the parking business all together:

The Folly of City-Owned Parking Garages - Commute - The Atlantic Cities

[BrianTH]

I've always felt that ideally the City would have just sold off the garages and lots, and let the new owners do whatever they wanted with the properties.

Of course you can't really do that with street parking, since the City still needs to control its public rights-of-way.