Greater City Providence

From the Twittersphere: Park-ing

Here’s the photo:

Photo from TweetPhoto by ohhleary

How do we put up with this? Sigh. It’s like some kind of Stockholm Syndrome or something. Burnside and Biltmore Parks are among our nicests, is it so bad that their are cars parked there?

SNAP OUT OF IT!

Of course it is. This is ridiculous, and it is equally as ridiculous over at Cathedral Square. I mean, you can see the cars parked in Cathedral Square from space!

So who do these cars belong to? Who said they can park there? And who can put an end to it? Anyone?

Jef Nickerson

Jef is Greater City Providence's co-founder, editor, and publisher. He grew up on Cape Cod and lived in Boston; Portland, Maine; and New York before settling in Providence. In addition to urbanism, Jef is interested in art, design, and ice cream. Please feel free to contact Jef if you have any question or comments about Greater City Providence.

16 comments

  • I’m going to make a crazy guess and say that those cars belong to people employed by the city in some capacity.

  • Jef –
    That’s the official parking lot for the Bank of America Skating Center. Jen is correct with her assumption that gov’t employees use that space during the day, and roller derby/other sports use that when they rent the BOA for practices.

  • Amanda:
    I have no issue with something like the Roller Derby using that as a staging area during an event. Events are different, things get shuffled around, uses change, it’s a trade off for a cool event.

    What I don’t like, is that there are people for which, this is their parking space. “I come to work, and this is where I park.” That is wrong on so many levels.

  • Anyone remember when state employees were allowed to park on the brick and marble mall outside within the State House lawn? Remember how long and how much money went in to replacing and rehabbing? Not to mention all the damaged marble pavers.

    How awful was that? This is equally as gross.
    Oh Providence.

  • this issue reminds me of something I’ve been thinking of for a while: we need a GC:PVD Fight Song.

  • I like the fight song idea a lot. This post also reminds me of a recent idea among friends from a night at the Wild Colonial …

    GC:PVD award category:
    Provi-DUNCE

  • I was just showing an out of town guest our city, excited about the changes afoot and all the hard work that’s gone into making Downcity thrive, but the poor parking situation is a huge distraction. I’m looking forward to days of fewer and fewer cars but in the meantime there should be an attractive and sensible solution to parking in the city.

  • There is a sensible solution: the mall. It’s by far the cheapest garage downtown. You don’t have to worry about what the cost might be for one of the random parking lots that change their rates daily. You don’t have to worry about driving around in circles trying to find a street space.

  • @ Jim. And the mall is a max $5.00 cost, if I’m not mistaken. Its also accessible to all of downtown (if you are able bodied).
    Oh and BTW why in the world are people allowed to block traffic in front of the mall to pick people up? The city could make a lot of money by just enforcing their darn traffic laws.

  • Whaa…? Enforce? I think you forgot there are no rules here. (Insert Yosemite Sam dance, shooting pistols in air.)

  • @coy: The mall is $1 for up to 3 hours (first 15 min is free, I’ve actually run in and out to return something and didn’t have to pay). It’s $5 for 3-5 hours I believe. I think it’s more after 5 hours, but I’ve never stayed that long. I’ve only paid $5 when I’ve gone to movies. There’s more info at http://www.providenceplace.com/about but it looks like the most is $25 for 20-24 hours. That’s a bargain compared to the lots on event nights.

  • @Jim: Good point about the consistency & availability of the Providence Place garage, but I don’t know many people willing to brave its complicated interior only to then have to walk across the unpleasant intersections, down the hill and across the river to get to Westminster Street.
    @Emily: When I first moved here I called downtown Liberty City after a certain action-packed video game that shall remain anonymous. I’ll just call it G. Theft Auto

  • @Leah: It’s about a 3-5 minute walk. Cross the street by Joe’s, go into Waterplace Park, under Memorial Blvd, cross over to Burnside Park and you’re at KP already. It will take people far less time and aggravation to do that than to drive around looking for free street parking. Honestly, there should be a premium to bring your car right downtown (though not to the extreme that the parking lot owners go on event nights). If there was better signage for pedestrians, people would be more willing to make the walk.

  • I can’t for the life of me utilize the Google machine to find out who owns the Skating Center. My feeble memory tells me that when the city sold the state the Dunk, the Skating Center was part of that deal. The Skating Center was run through the Dunk. Can anyone confirm that. Does the state own the Skating Center and does it fall under the Dunk/Convention Center Authority now?

    If so, shouldn’t the workers park at the Convention Center? Even if not, if they don’t want to park at the mall, the Convention Center has public parking.

    Oh, and here’s a brain storm, the Skating Center workers could oh, I don’t know, TAKE A BUS!

  • I “think” the city owns the skating center but puts the management of it out to bid.

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