Managing Congestion

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Editor,

I keep hearing that the village entrance project is going to benefit business, but I don’t agree.

The parking structure is going to be located outside the business district, and we already know that people want to park on the ground close to stores.

Building it will disrupt traffic and create more congestion and the loss of parking downtown for at least five years.  Adding $1 to all parking meter rates can’t be good for business.  What’s going to happen to the farmers’ market during those five years?

Funding it will create the largest debt the city has ever had over a 25-year period, delaying needed projects (such as flood control and solutions to parking problems the whole length of the Coast Highway) and interfering with the city’s ability to meet new challenges.

What might better serve both residents and business would be to implement the recommendations of the parking management study, which would produce the equivalent of 200-400 parking spaces in the downtown where they’re needed.

We could still beautify the village entrance site without taking on this massive debt and tying the city’s hands in the face of changing needs.

The parking structure is a 10-week solution, and it costs too much. Parking management would be afforable and would work year-round.

Bobbie Chambers Minkin, Former City Council Member

 

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