Parking

Now that I have 2 vehicles I am aware of the parking shortage we have here. Thursday afternoons are the worst, especially if they serve Turkey dinner at the seniors.

We share the lot with the Senior Center. Half the lot is theirs. There are 90 parking spaces total, 45 of which belong to us. There are 121 apartments. See the problem.

Obviously the people that built the place did not.

Builders see parking as a liability. It's makes them no money, so they build as little of it as they can. Even in cities where they have parking meter, there is no parking.

Parking, like parks, should be a mandatory part of city design.

I was in Schenectady 2 years ago and parked on the street next to a parking lot that was the size of an entire city block. The street where I parked had parking meters. The lot said Permit parking, but the lot was completely empty.

I asked what the deal was with the lot and was told it used to be for GE workers, but had long since been abandoned due to downsizing. For whatever reason, the city did not take it over. I can't imagine that the parking meters make the city that much money and they deter people from coming to the city to shop. Having free public parking should be a priority, but it's not.

Go figure.