Pam Jardieu was kind enough to work up this picture of Downtown Utica's parking situation. Blue = existing parking garages, green = existing surface parking, red = PROPOSED additional surface lots.
The picture shows there is plenty of parking in Downtown Utica.
So there should be no need to destroy a landmark . . . nor to re-propose the blockage of Park Avenue and disrupt hundreds of motorists.
There may be parking issues in Downtown Utica, but there is plenty of parking.
The problems may be that certain places have a high demand at certain times, that much of the parking is privately owned and may be underutilized, and that many of the public lots and garages are for pay.
The City and County have now created a new parking problem for the general public at the train station by turning a free public lot over to private hands.
No expertise has been brought to bear on the issue. Our public officials are winging it and don't have a clue.
6 comments:
"The Renaissance City"?
HA!
"Utica: The FRIENDS & FAMILY City"!
(Friends and family of the administration, that is...)
Closing off Park Ave. just makes no sense! If parking is so sparse, then build another parking garage! Not that I support that idea. The problem is that many don't like walking. Hell, if you look at the "public parking" section next to the courthouse, it is all county employees! And the handicapped spaces are used up by county employees who clearly have no handicap other than they don't like to put down the bag of pork grinds and take a walk!
It would be a good question to pose to our mayoral candidates how they feel about these parking plans . . . particularly Mr. Cardillo who seemed fond of Mr. Picente's and Mr. Julian's performances in office this morning when he was interviewed on the radio. Both Julian and Picente pushed for the Park Ave plan . . . and apparently agreed on the privatization of public parking at the train station.
Everyone is working hard and trying their best. Reality is that there is no real economic development to work on, so the efforts go into other things just to say that "progress is being made".
Closing Park Ave to create a parking lot for County "business" (use that word loosely) is just plain backwards.
Knocking down the former HSBC building to create more parking is not necessary. BUT the Return on investment for restoring the building is just not there either, so it will sit and most likely continue to be an eyesore and point of contention and embarassment to the City of Utica.
Hold the private owner responsible for upkeep according to codes. Continue to collect taxes, and let the issue lie until something breaks with the Hotel Utica.
Great map. Pretty soon it will be all parking and no building. And Good for Landmarks Society stepping up to defend the city plan in the following post.
Seems to me the county could construct a simple 1 story parking deck which could add 30% to 40% additional parking. And the county could give back to the city by designing a new deck to give a street wall along Park Avenue - perhaps 20' depth of retail space along park avenue to serve office workers and patrons.
And if not retail, at least creative use of structure and landscape to create a strong, attractive edge along Park Avenue.
Closing Park Ave is a losing proposition and idiotic.
It is a great map. The parking issue has been a red herring for years. The key question relates to the downtown as a viable commercial entity and whether or not public resources should be spent on its behalf. Creativity is needed, not parking lots.
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