Today's local newspaper got me shaking my head, tsk, tsking and wondering what the hell is so wrong with government half of the time--or is it just Annapolis? The first piece is an editorial about the failure of the special tax increases from the special session to do much of anything special. Okay, that's not directly about Annapolis--but it is about the state government that meets in Annapolis. And there is the piece about the failure of the Knighton Garage to really do what it was built to do--provide parking. It just has not worked. CP watched that whole venture unfold, raising the clarion call that downtown does not and has not ever had a parking problem. Even the mayor's former "parking coordinator" said ...now the discussion is we have too much parking".
CP has long maintained that the issue is not parking. What we have is a transportation and mobility challenge. Downtown parking garages really serve little utility. They suck up public dollars, take otherwise productive land out of real use and they don't solve or address problems of mobility or congestion--they just take us away from our largest personal investment where they let our second-largest investments sit...and sit.... So--does it come as a surprise to CP that the garage is not doing what it is supposed to do? The parking management contract is up next year and this is what The Capital says:
And it gets worse. The Capital reports that "Ms. Moyer said she has tentatively looked at consolidating parking operations into one department in the city." I can see it now. A new department and a new bureaucracy with the job going to...drum roll please....an old friend of the mayor herself...her former "parking coordinator" perhaps? Any way you cut it, more parking causes more problems than it resolves.
HERE IS AN IDEA.....END PARKING AT CITY DOCK AND TURN IT INTO SOMETHING USEFUL AND ATTRACTIVE THEREBY ENDING THE GRIDLOCK DOWNTOWN. TAKE THE EXCESS TO THE KNIGHTON GARAGE. BEEF UP OUR TRANSIT SYSTEM.
Anybody listening?
Look for posts coming soon in which CP looks at the anniversary of the failed Chesapeake Bay Program--25 years after I attended and wrote about the conference where it started. I'll also be looking at our downtown possibly collaborating with Westfield Shoppingtown (aka the mall) and so-called Parole Towne Center, which is neither, or maybe Towne Park. It's funny how they love the word "town" or "towne"....when they destroy real towns.
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