FeedConsistency takes a hike at Peoria City Council
May 24, 2006 in Local
I’m the first to say that C.J. Summer’s blog is one of the best out there. I can always count on C.J. to offer valuable insights. He jokes about how he might have 15 regular readers. I assure you all that he has more than that and deserves to have many more.
For example, he caught a discrepency thjat I missed at Tuesday’s Peoria City Council meeting:
The council decided on a 9-2 vote to offer free parking for two hours at a time during the day (see my previous post for more details), but only after a lot of discussion. During that discussion, some council members talked about how people would rather walk a couple blocks for free parking than pay for the parking that is closest to the business they’re patronizing.
That’s funny. Just a few weeks ago, the council voted to put an unnecessary parking deck under museum square based on their belief that people would never even walk across the street from one of the surrounding lots or decks. We were told then that we live in a northern climate here in Peoria and no one is going to walk a block or two in the rain or cold. Now we’re told that they will walk a couple blocks — if the parking is free. Huh.
Huh, indeed.
C.J. knows as well as I do that the decisions the council makes often are not based on ideology or any particular fiscal policy, but on the names of the players.
May 25th, 2006 at 9:13 am
I agree that there is NO consistency on that board regarding parking. Did you also catch the discussion regarding the restaurant/bar in RenPark area? One of the reasons cited by those who wanted to deny the liquor license was that there was no parking close by and some of the parking arranged by the owner was a block or two away.
There will never be good redevelopment of some of the older buildings as long as the City requires certain parking requirements. In my opinion, they should be completely eliminated, except in very limited circumstances, where the City could articulate a compelling reason for imposing them.
No one will open a business if they aren’t confident that they will be able to attract customers. Let customers decide how far they are willing to walk. The private sector can handle this better than government regulation. I have to admit that when I’m in town, I frequently seek a close parking space to where I’m headed. However, when I’m in St. Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis - I frequently walk eight, nine, or ten blocks - without thinking twice.