News-Record.com

I think the valet parking on Elm Street should be banned. They take up too many parking spaces and they block off the spaces the need for 6+ hours a night. This causes as much trouble as trucks during the day, if not more. This is Greensboro, not a major city. FREE parking decks are no more than one block off of Elm St. The people of Greenboro can use the exercise, that's for sure...

Also, how about handicapped parking on Elm St? There doesn't seem to be much of that, if any.

Roger: Good observation on the street parking for disabled drivers. Come to think of it, I'm not sure where (if) there's a place to park for those who need assistance.

As for the free parking, that only holds for anytime after 6 p.m. Here's a link to the city's Web site on the four decks and their rates.

Hi Eric, I was referring to "free" in the sense of evening/weekend parking when the valet parking company is monopolizing the spaces. I am downtown just about every weekend and also own a condo donwtown, so pretty familiar with the parking/traffic problems.

I can't recall ever seeing on-street parking for disabled drivers. They have to park in a deck and then trek to Elm St. Downtown is not a very "handicap-friendly" area and I'm quite surprised. Try maneuvering a wheel-chair in front of Much when they have their tables set-up outside...

If they are serious about fixing the parking/traffic flow, they need to also understand that when the traffic light you are sitting at turns GREEN, the next traffic light should NOT be turning RED!!!

Eric,
The 30 minute passenger parking in loading zones was put into place for very short term parking to run in for a cup of coffee, take out food, make a delivery or to load up a purchase that would be a hassel to carry to the parking garages. At the time they were put in, parking in the garages was much more expensive than parking on the street (even if you got a ticket, the fine was less than parking half a day in any of the decks). It seemed like a fairly good idea at the time.

I don't think that delivery trucks are as big a problem as some people think. There is plenty of room to drive on either side of even large trucks making deliveries to nearby retail stores and restaurants.

I have suggested to the City Council and to the Downtown Advisory Board and to Downtown Greensboro Inc. that a good use of some of the extra tax money downtown property owners pay would be to have traffic cops in the downtown area during a few heavy traffic times to keep the traffic flowing at a reasonable pace. My suggestion has fallen on deaf ears for many years. This solution was used in the "old days" and is used in congested areas of forward-looking cities and in our large, local shopping centers. I guess the shopping centers are trying to be customer friendly, which increases business.
Most of the people who "make the downtown rules" don't have a financial interest in downtown and don't seem to care about how hard the parking regulations are on merchants.

For at least the past 30 years, most of the changes in the central business of Greensboro have done more to hurt the area than help it.

Some of the things that have been done:
*Trying to turn downtown into an outdoor mall with no parking.
*Closing alleyways so that deliveries and maintenance could not be done from behind the buildings.
*Having no bus stops in the shopping/business district of Elm St.
*Even now, when the busses cross Elm Street, at Market, Washington, McGee and Lindsey streets, they don't stop to load or unload passengers.
*Having the HEAT (free student transportation vans) run a short loop by the bars two or three nights a week, but never close to daytime shopping.
*Raising the price of metered parking and installing meters that will not register any parking time on them until at least 25 cents has been put into the slot. So if you park for 5 minutes, you still pay for 30.
*Closing streets, making taffic heavier on those left open.
*Removing turn lanes and narrowing streets extending widewalks into traffic lanes.
*Installing medians which make auto, bike and pedestrian travel harder and more dangerous.
*Now, there is talk of moving the Visitors' Center from the Downtown area to inside the Coliseum.

I could go on and on, but it probably will not do any good. We need some good ideas about how to improve the downtown. What I meant to say is that we need some officials who will listen to good ideas and then act on them.>/b> There is much talk about helping and saving downtown and making it day and night friendly. What a bunch of rot.

I will attend the meeting Thursday, but the talk will not be driven by customers, or small business owners.

There is one suggestions that seems reasonable.
*Use the loading zones for taxi stands during certain hours at night so the drunks can get home safely.

I hope to see you at the meeting.