What do you think about the plans for Broughton St.? (Savannah: crime, school)

[WanderingImport]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

I'm going to begin doing a diary of my parking experiences downtown, just to prove a point. I always start off looking on Broughton Street and then branch off by block to areas that I have experience at finding spaces. I'll record the time I arrived on Broughton, the time it took me to find a space, and location.

Exactly. I start my search on Broughton. Always. It pretty much always ends there. Most of the time, I find parking near the SCAD theatre on either side. If not there, then across from the Marshall House. Yes, I've been successful in the middle of the day, too.

I never understand why people continuously gripe about lack of parking when I never have issues. Well, not never. I've had issues before, but I have never left unsuccessful. The longest it has taken to find a spot wasn't any more than 15 minutes. At most.

[pink caddy]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

Cool. So if I ever want to go there at 6:26 on a Monday night, I'm golden. Still unconvinced.

"Unconvinced"? By 7pm everyone working downtown went home. Meters on Bay go off. Plenty of parking there and IF not there is valet parking at several hotels on Bay. Give the guy $2 bux and let the moths fly out of your wallet. Lol.

Honestly,many people that have moved to the burbs have preconceived notions about not wanting to put up with a hassle. Real or conceived. Get out and enjoy yourself. Life is shor

[gentlearts]

Originally Posted by pink caddy

"Unconvinced"? By 7pm everyone working downtown went home. Meters on Bay go off. Plenty of parking there and IF not there is valet parking at several hotels on Bay. Give the guy $2 bux and let the moths fly out of your wallet. Lol.

Honestly,many people that have moved to the burbs have preconceived notions about not wanting to put up with a hassle. Real or conceived. Get out and enjoy yourself. Life is shor

I have a life, and a routine. I would prefer to go downtown in the afternoon. I'm sure I could also find a parking space at 4:00 am with no problem, but that is not when I wish to be there.

I never thought of the hotel valet angle. I can use it if I'm not staying at the hotel? I did not know that, and for the record, I don't care what I pay, except I balk at the $10. lot if I just want to spend a hour or two.

[SavannahLife]

Hm the valet thing is interesting...

I think this is a common theme in cities. By mid-day parking is used up by 9 to 5 workers. The nature of the beast and so forth. Plus you can walk or take the free shuttle from parking anywhere on the edge of historic district, and be almost anywhere else downtown in 5-10 minutes. Or take a horse, a pedicab, ferry, or Last Ride... to be eccentric or whatnot. Not to be inconsiderate (I have a hard time walking myself sometimes) but a walking city is a healthy city. Literally. Handicap spots can and should always have good positioning of course. But the brilliant Oglethorpe Plan will serve Savannah well far into the future, as long as it lives. It is more relevant now than ever.

On the other hand, that Ellis Square underground parking lot, was worth every penny. Brilliant. Just saw it for the first time the other day. I never knew it was there!! Maybe another time we do a large scale infill project, i.e. this Arena, we should do more underground parking. If you are going to do something big, go all the way. 10 levels deep perhaps? Or if they do more hotels, they should have to construct a couple levels deep of underground parking?

Other ideas I have heard: closing Broughton to car traffic and making it pedestrian. Another idea: make it one-way and turn one lane into parking, by doing diagonal parking along the street, with bumpouts with a tree or planter every block or so. All interesting... with their pluses and minuses. I don't really have a favorite idea myself yet... They all seem worth studying and getting more public input probably.

The CAT bus seems to work very nicely, I take it sometimes. We have a good bus system for a small city. If the towns like Pooler would chip in, it would be a lot more efficient, seeing as it has to route around Pooler. That would help a lot, and perhaps reduce rush hour traffic congestion even. Give large employers bus passes to give to employees perhaps?

The Christmas ornaments look nice. Also the Chistmas parade on Broughton here is very nice we went last year it was very family friendly. Almost surprising to see families out and about in a city at night anymore these days. Hopefully people keep coming out and it will be safe and the downtown will be vibrant.

[Newsboy]

TURNED ONTO BROUGHTON FROM E BROAD: 4:20 pm
PARKED AT 2 E BROUGHTON STREET: 4:21 pm
TOTAL TIME: 00:01:27

*** NOTE: The OO block of W BROUGHTON, between Bull and Whitaker, is closed for the hanging of Christmas lights. So an entire block the street is closed to traffic and I still found a space in under 2 minutes. There was an available space in front of me when I started typing this. There remains an available space on the opposite side of the street directly in front of Starbucks. There are two spaces on Bull, one in front of Levy's and the other in front of SunTrust ... at 4:30 in the afternoon.

[Newsboy]

OH LOOK! Theres another space in front of Villa Savannah!

[Newsboy]

... and another space in front of Banana Republic!

[Newsboy]

... and another space in front of Papilotte!

[SavannahLife]

And there's always the old trick of parking on Hutch and taking the ferry back over. If you have some time to be leisurely on the weekend it's a nice safe spot, and a fun way to get around. Many options in this unique town to let you get creative.

[Newsboy]

... and another in front of Urban Outfitters!!!

(NOTE: all these photos were taken around 4:30 pm. It took me awhile to post them.)