Thursday, March 22, 2007

Harrison Square Question

Who thinks that we need to build a new Parking Garage with public money Downtown?

There are a lot of parking spaces Downtown. I have never had difficulty finding a parking space. Realize that I also do not mind walking a couple of blocks to get where I am going.

One of the things about this project that makes no sense to me is building a 100% publicly financed parking garage. It is absurd.

I keep hearing that proponents of a Downtown Baseball Stadium want a vibrant and walkable Downtown.

If a parking garage is built right next to the Stadium how will that encourage people to walk Downtown? Won't the Parking Garage cause fewer people to walk Downtown?

I have lived in Fort Wayne a long time. I have irritated my mother-in-law on more then one occasion when she goes shopping with us. If we go to a mall I park in the first space I can find. If I go to Glenbrook and it is busy I always park out by Coliseum Blvd because I refuse to troll parking lots looking for parking spaces.

When my mother was recovering from a broken leg I did drop her off at the front door... So there have been one or two exceptions...

This is one of the many things about the project that does not make sense to me. There are a lot of people who will spend time driving around a parking lot so that they do not have to walk an extra 500 feet.

Please try to give me a reasoned answer that will make sense to those people who are skeptical...

I think a Parking Garage is a huge waste of taxpayer dollars.

Mike Sylvester

P.S. Sam you might want to let someone else handle this one for you!

11 comments:

Emmett Greider said...

Well what do you know, Mike? We finally agree on something!! ;-) While I certainly don't believe it's a deal-breaker, I have wondered myself about the necessity of a new garage.

But alas, unlike you, I don't mind if Sam or someone else in the know fills me in.

Parson said...

I know trying to find a spot to park durring 3 rivers festival is a pain.
Were are the people staying in the 300 room Motel 6 going to park. :)

Anonymous said...

There is no parking downtown!

I had to walk for almost 5 minutes to get food a few days ago. I will not be walking that far to watch a baseball game.

The current stadium is just fine with me and my family.

Emmett Greider said...

@Anonymous: Have you seen this image (which, btw, doesn't even include parking garages):

http://downtownfortwayne.com/story.php?cat=1&sub=&uid=87

Most people can walk 1/4 mile in five minutes. Are you saying there was no parking space closer than a quarter mile to your restaurant?


You know, even Mike says there's no shortage of downtown parking. And you can bet if there was a shortage, he'd find it and point it out! ;-)

Anonymous said...

I dont know think that the parking garage of this size is necessary, but it will sure help ease the shock of the ballpark being downtown. It also pretty much is a necessity for a hotel to have access to vicinity parking Also, it wont ensure people will walk around downtown, but it will enable them to be able to. I dont know if you've tried, but try walking from the closest restaurant - Ruby Tuesdays - and then walk to the stadium. Thats a walk I dont want to take.

Anonymous said...

5 minutes to walk?? OH THE HORRORS. No wonder why we have an obesity problem.

I got an idea - why dont you park in the last spot furthest away from the baseball diamond and walk, time yourself.

To appease your problem, I am going to foot the bill for a gigantic slide from the parking garage to your seat at the ball game, so you wont even have to use any energy.

Keep complaining.

LP Mike Sylvester said...

Scott:

I think we agree on many things; just not Harrison Square...

Parson:

It may be difficult to park downtown a few days a year. That does not justify a large publicly funded parking garge in my opinion.

Scott:

Hey now, I do not oppose all alscpects of this project. You have never heard me attack the condos or mixed use portion because I think this portion is ok if the funding is mostly private...

Paul:

I always walk when I go downtown. I always parking in the City County Parking garage and then I walk several blocks...

Mike Sylvester

Old Fort 83 said...

Parking is not the problem, it's the mindset of people in Fort Wayne. The reason parking for 3 Rivers is "a pain" is probably because people flat out REFUSE to walk more than a few minutes to get anywhere.

I walk about 10 minutes each way every day just to get onto public transportation in DC. The fact that people would complain about walking 5 minutes from their parking spot to go to a baseball game is laughable and in my humble opinion..... embarassing.

Get a clue, Fort Wayne. Always a step (or two or 3) behind everywhere else.

Sigh.

LP Mike Sylvester said...

Kramyelamo:

I certainly agree with you on this one...

I like going to baseball games in other places.

When I see a game at Wrigley I walk about 15 miutes each way to get to the game. I do this because I want to minimize what I pay for parking.

That would never happen in Fort Wayne...

I do not think we have a parking problem downtown. There are improvements we could make; however, there is plenty of parking.

Mike Sylvester

Robert Enders said...

Lets look at this from a marketing stand point. Baseball is a sport in which about 20 men are getting exercise while 3000 fans sit on their butts. If these fans wanted exercise, they wouldn't being watching sports, they'd be playing sports.

That guy who complained about walking for 5 minutes? He might be a lazy fat guy, but I think he represents a common type of sports fan. Not all sports fans are lazy, but enough of them are that it would mean a severe drop in ticket sales if they had to walk more than 2 city blocks from their parking spot.

I don't usually have trouble finding a spot. I park on Calhoun or Columbia Street when going to the City-County building. When I go to the festival, I ride my bike.

When my dad lived in FW, he would park in his government employee space at the Federal Builing(next to Lincoln Life) and we would walk all the way to Junk Food Alley, just to save a quarter. Which was fine, because we needed to burn off the calories that we had just consumed.

Doug H 3rd Dist Rep LPIN said...

To All,

When I go downtown now it is normally for business at the city/county building.

I make absolutely certain that I park just north of Freimann Square in a metered space.

I do this for several reasons:

#1) Doug is cheap. It is far less expensive to pay the meter than to pay for the parking garage.

#2) I like taking an extra minute or two to walk. I want to loose weight and the extra exercise won't do me any harm.

I also know how long I am going to be and as long as it is less than 2 hours (99% of the time) then the meter doesn't cause me a problem.

I also do something similar when attending events at the coliseum. I will part at Johnny Appleseed and walk to the coliseum. I refuse to pay for parking that they promised would eventually be free. This has recently caused me an issue trying to overcome snowbanks when they plow the lot but where there is a will there is a way.

Let us not forget that the time it takes to walk is either good or bad depending on your point of view. Bad weather can also severely impact how much we may detest taking an extra few minutes to get to our vehicles.

Respectfully,

Doug Horner

Search This Blog

Offices on the Ballot - Allen County 2024

  OFFICES ON THE 2024 BALLOT ALLEN COUNTY INDIANA   FEDERAL   President of the United States United States Representative Dist...

Blog Archive

Labels


Brgd. General Anthony Wayne US Continental Army

Sitemeter




My blog is worth $11,855.34.
How much is your blog worth?

Followers

About Commenting

Keep it clean and relevant to the post. If you have a question that isn't related to a recent post, email me at enders.robert@gmail.com . You can also email me if you want to make an anonymous comment.

DISCLAIMER

Per the by-laws of the Libertarian Party of Allen County, the Chair is the official spokesperson of LPAC in all public and media matters.

Posts and contributions expressed on this forum, while being libertarian in thought and intent, no official statement of LPAC should be derived or assumed unless specifically stated as such from the Chair, or another Officer of the Party acting in his or her place, and such statements are always subject to review.