Isn't this a parking garage?

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Isn't this a parking garage?

Submitted by emmettoconnell on Wed, 03/22/2006 - 2:18pm.

The background noise of this talk of whether to give more money to the PBIA (and here) and the demise of free parking downtown is that someday, in the future, we'll build a parking garage downtown. Which makes me scratch my head, because it seems like somone has already built a parking garage downtown. As I pass Chesnut on my way to the library, I take a look at the new building, known as Cherry St. Plaza, and notice an attached 540 stall parking structure there.

So, instead of building a new, public parking structure downtown or charging for parking so some day we can build one, wouldn't it be easier to gain access to the parking structures that already exist downtown? Maybe open them to public parking during the evenings and weekends?

In addition to the new Cherry St. Plaza parking garage, there is also a huge parking garage underneath the east end of the Capital Campus. Wouldn't it be easier to open up that garage at night and extend Dash Service to 9 p.m.?

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Wow, that ISN'T a parking

Submitted by eelcozy on Wed, 03/22/2006 - 2:53pm.

Wow, that ISN'T a parking garage?

Last semester I went down there and took a bunch of pictures of the construction for photography. The guys outside laying bricks did weird poses. Made for some odd pictures.

Well, it isn't a public

Submitted by emmettoconnell on Wed, 03/22/2006 - 3:03pm.

Well, it isn't a public parking garage. Not like the kind we're thinking of building. But, it is a parking garage in the sense that people will park there.

I love the idea of

Submitted by DrewHendricks on Wed, 03/22/2006 - 6:17pm.

I love the idea of leveraging the parking we already have by shifting people by bus once they have parked in the existing garages. That would take care of most of the parking issues. Of course, the best way to solve downtown parking issues would be to depave Cherry, Washington, and 5th Ave downtown and have a walking mall like the one in Oak Park Il. That way, you can park along the periphery and walk to your destination. Or break out your Segway.

In the day to day business of my day job, I sometimes have to park downtown, during the day. I usually find a spot within a block of my destination, not always on the side of the street I want. This takes me maybe 10 minutes on a busy day. When I just cannot find a spot, I drive a little further out toward the North or South, and find a spot very quickly. I just do not see it as a huge problem. Of course I remember residential parking in Oak Park and Chicago Il, so I guess it takes a bit to impress me...

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