To the dismay of several business owners, the Pullman City Council again is considering eliminating downtown parking on Grand Avenue.
Traffic flow on Grand Avenue has been an issue since 1993, when the city first commissioned a study that showed congestion could be alleviated by taking away some on-street parking.
Doing so would, without a doubt, hurt Pizza Pipeline who have a lot of quick in and out business. I also noticed today that a new Loading Zone was added in front of Pizza Pipeline and the Cordova Theater. April points out that even with parking within a few blocks it is still an issue with many people. When I bought my four-wheeler down there and when I bring it in for service, I am not going to park two blocks away and push it to her shop.
If PARD wants to fight for downtown this is an issue they should take up. I wonder what it would be like downtown without those spaces close to the businesses they serve. I wonder if Pipeline and some of the other business who need the quick in-and-out business would find a new place to move their business? If I was the owner of Pipeline I would surely move elsewhere.
Will there also be an increase in speeds through downtown? Will not having all the parked cars on the side of the road cause people to feel more comfortable in increasing their speed?
As much as I hate the traffic through the downtown area during Pullman's infamous "rush-hour" it is not to the level where I avoid it at all costs. I just realize that my commute will be an extra few minutes when going across town.
1 comment:
Thanks Scotty. I really do appreciate your support. The entire idea of removing parking is surreal to me. Something about it reminds me of throwing the virgin into the volcano for the greater good.
Someone asked me tonight, "Couldn't you just move your business to a better location?" Well, sure I could. At a tremendous cost to my business and my building would still be an empty shell. Think about the relocation cost to each and every business that is currently between Davis Way and Main. And then we would still have the problem of empty shells. Has anyone noticed all the "going out of business" and "for rent" signs already in downtown Pullman? It's not likely any sane person would be eager to invest their money in a new business that has no parking and has a history of failure. It's disturbing that this is even on table for consideration.
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