Legislation seeks to solve parking problem

[dougskiles]

Finally, someone has the right idea, get rid of paid parking altogether. That, combined with the one way streets, and exorbitant rents, is a main thing holding downtown back.

The 2-waying of streets was also talked about in that meeting.  Both Bishop and Redman seemed to be very much in favor of (as well as everyone else in the room).  It makes wonder - why is it taking so long to get this done?

My guess is it's the money it would cost to re-stripe and replace/reconfigure traffic signals and signs.

So instead, we give away $3.5 million for another parking garage downtown.

[Debbie Thompson]

Probably, Libertarian, but meantime downtown still suffers.  If we had a thriving downtown, how quick would pay back for restriping be?  Oh, and good point, Doug.  The $3.5 million would probably cover the whole thing.

That said, I remember when you had to have one way streets downtown, lest there be gridlock trying to get people out of downtown during rush hour.  Those were the days....  :-)