Live Blog: Riverside/Avondale Parking Committee 9/16

[TheCat]

Another meeting will begin shortly.

Not sure what it is but something like the distinct sound of a heartbeat is coming from the rooms speakers.

Overheard...

Owner of kickbacks said "Crime has gone from the day Kickbacks has opened until now." He does a swoop with his hand that demonstrates a downward slope. It looks like the officer readjusted the geography of crime reporting to be more central to Riverside and not North of Riverside.

lup-dup, lup-dup, lup-dup...

[TheCat]

Meeting is on. Kay is breaking down the agenda.

Patrick the officer is up (He was asked to redraw boundaries and represent the crime stats; specifically, around the area around park and king):

He is breaking down "strictly traffic related reports" in the avondale area from August 2012 - August 2013. 

[TheCat]

In the course of 7 years there have been a reduction in phone calls to the police from the avondale region. Officer, compares numbers from 2005/2006 to 2012/2013. The calls were reduced by more than 200.

[TheCat]

Susun:

Look, people are parking cars illegally all day but people are making calls when they come home they are making calls.

Officer:

The majority of violators are going to be residences.

[TheCat]

Officer:

The majority of our actionable noise complaints we go to it and we listen and they are not significant. Not specifically regarding avondale but in general people complain about noise where it doesn't really exist.

*In avondale noise complaints occur around 11:30pm to 1am.

**It's worth noting that none of the crime reporting/noise violation/whatever is really relevant to the issue...parking. If anything, it is showing that the more people come to an area the less calls to police there are.

[TheCat]

Officer Patrick:

* We're going over the traffic related calls right now in the King Street area. Jenks house owner was a little disappointed that most of the traffic related calls are not made at 2 am. Most traffic related calls are happening from 8am - 7pm. The officer said he expected the calls at 2am to be around 25 but they are at 14. By comparison there are about 24 call at 2PM. I'm wondering if the owner of Jenk's house would like to stop parking at 2pm as well.

[TheCat]

By comparison in 2005/2006 there were 4,630 calls for service. In 2012/2013 that number drops to 3,040.

This is most important:

Calls for service in park and king are almost identical Monday - Saturday. It ranges from 416 - 472.

The peak call time is at 11PM at night at 197.

Officer:

Discusses the significant drop in calls for service from 2005 - 2013. He says "we call that a grand slam. It's not just down it's huge!" That peak time in 2005/2006 was at 5pm on a Wednesday. That tells us that there were a drug related issues. Now, the shift in calls has moved to Friday evenings.

*the cop kindly plays the role of a stern but understanding father, "If these numbers went back up to 2005 levels you'd be calling me everyday and not for illegally parked cars."

[TheCat]

Officer:

Kudos to Ed for hiring an off duty officer. Cops should be outside not inside. Officers don't like to hear that... (laughter)

[TheCat]

The stops were not just in the commercial district so it gave the opportunity for people to not have to take their cars into the commercial district.

[TheCat]

The numbers of users are not in yet but we're looking at over 1000

[JaxByDefault]

Owner of kickbacks said "Crime has gone from the day Kickbacks has opened until now." He does a swoop with his hand that demonstrates a downward slope. It looks like the officer readjusted the geography of crime reporting to be more central to Riverside and not North of Riverside.

Since the opening of Kickbacks there has actually been a 30% reduction of crime and police calls in general.  Wow.

My office is next-door to Kickbacks. Can't thank them enough for being there and being open nearly 24-7. I have no problems with parking and the activity level in the area makes working the occasional very late night almost pleasant.


*Glad to hear trolley event went well.

[TheCat]

Kay:

Offers the idea of a TMA (Transportation Management Association) for businesses to form if JTA does not take this idea on.

[Kay]

Stephen:

It was one of the options presented by the consultant.  It was refreshing to see you realize that perhaps the group isn't a bunch of parking nazis.  Give the process a chance and the committee a chance.  The reason for both merchants and residents in the group is to work out a compromise.  Some residents will want restricted parking and some merchants won't want to do anything different.  We'll figure it out.

Next week are community meetings to present the data and get feedback from merchants and residents. 

[L.P. Hovercraft]

Jennifer Maydachek the serial complainer for King Street who is sitting on the Commission has just arrived.

Ok, I gotta jump in here Stephen--not that this has anything to do with the parking issue, but I don't think "the serial complainer" is a fair label for this committee member unless you are also ok describing the particular nightclub in question that had the noise complaints called in as "the serial offender". 

Full disclosure, Jennifer happens to be my wife.  She's a hard working, dedicated middle school math teacher and also teaches a GED night course after school and needs to actually, you know, sleep at night and get up early in the morning, which is not easily achievable when several nights of the week extremely loud music and window rattling bass had started to emanate from one particular newly opened nightclub next door and was audible INSIDE our home.  That said, I don't think any noise complaints have been called in for at least a year or so since the club owner, being a good neighbor (and probably being sick of the complaints) installed sound proofing inside the club so that now, although it's not 100% inaudible, it has greatly decreased the volume spilling outside (and into our own home) thus solving the problem.

We don't hold a personal grudge against this particular club or it's owner, or bars or nightclubs in general--there were several others already around when we purchased our home in 2008 and we understand living in an urban area you're going to get some street noise, but come on, people gotta sleep--lack of sleep will literally make you crazy.  Or do you really think this is some kind of arrogant anti-business assumption of working class privilege that one shouldn't have to listen to bass heavy dance music when one is not actually dancing at the club next door but trying to get some sleep in one's own home at 2 in the morning?!?

[If_I_Loved_you]

Jennifer Maydachek the serial complainer for King Street who is sitting on the Commission has just arrived.

Ok, I gotta jump in here Stephen--not that this has anything to do with the parking issue, but I don't think "the serial complainer" is a fair label for this committee member unless you are also ok describing the particular nightclub in question that had the noise complaints called in as "the serial offender". 

Full disclosure, Jennifer happens to be my wife.  She's a hard working, dedicated middle school math teacher and also teaches a GED night course after school and needs to actually, you know, sleep at night and get up early in the morning, which is not easily achievable when several nights of the week extremely loud music and window rattling bass had started to emanate from one particular newly opened nightclub next door and was audible INSIDE our home.  That said, I don't think any noise complaints have been called in for at least a year or so since the club owner, being a good neighbor (and probably being sick of the complaints) installed sound proofing inside the club so that now, although it's not 100% inaudible, it has greatly decreased the volume spilling outside (and into our own home) thus solving the problem.

We don't hold a personal grudge against this particular club or it's owner, or bars or nightclubs in general--there were several others already around when we purchased our home in 2008 and we understand living in an urban area you're going to get some street noise, but come on, people gotta sleep--lack of sleep will literally make you crazy.  Or do you really think this is some kind of arrogant anti-business assumption of working class privilege that one shouldn't have to listen to bass heavy dance music when one is not actually dancing at the club next door but trying to get some sleep in one's own home at 2 in the morning?!?

+100,000