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Hood River News Editorial
February 7, 2007
Three thoughts as the Hood River City
Council continues its review of potential solutions to
downtown parking needs:
* No solutions to parking or downtown access should be
considered without factoring in public transportation, given high fuel
costs, air quality, and the simple common sense of bearing people
aboard buses.
* The city should consider adding more “free” parking dates,
beyond the Christmas holiday times; just one or two more per year,
well-advertised, can increase interest in the downtown core and
demonstrate to motorists that finding a parking spot two blocks from
your destination isn’t that hard to do, and isn’t that far to walk.
It’s about overcoming perceptions.
* Include the newly formed Downtown Neighborhood Association,
as well as business groups, in the discussions. The issue of parking
is a neighborhood issue if there ever was one.
Also, this would be a good time to actively encourage downtown
business owners and their employees to explore parking options other
than the following familiar scene: walking out the door and plugging
the meter just a few feet down the street.
This simple change could free up any number of parking spots for
citizens wanting to do business downtown and would require no private
or public expenditures, fee increases, or construction. |
