Looks like the city is slowly but surely moving in the direction of possibly lowering parking fees in the garage for downtown employees.
Chuck was in yesterday, and I suggested that they take the second from the top level, or even the second and third levels from the top of the garage, and offer it to employees for a minimal cost. Say, 20.00 a month. If the tags are transferable, I'd think a responsible employer would be willing to buy one or two.
During the daytime, these levels have been 95% empty almost everytime I've ever seen them.
Color code them -- blue levels, or red levels, or something.
Not to say I told you so....well, maybe a little....but I've been suggesting this for years, now.
What about someone like me who is currently paying the 50.00 a month? Well, I'm sure some of us will keep the convenient parking on the lower levels, and others wouldn't. But I'm not suggesting this solution as a money maker for the garage, unfortunately, only as a possible solution to employee parking.
Which brings me to a second point.
I'm certain that some of you think I'm opposed to the garage, the buses, the Tower Theater.
What I'd like to point out is -- my contention from the beginning, and this is my judgment based on being a lifelong resident of Bend-- is that all three of these public 'good' projects would be underutilized.
And I was right.
I can't explain why Bend is so different, but I just believe that we don't get the same results here for public transportation, or parking garages, or public venues that places of similar size elsewhere. Demographics? Isolation? Eastern Oregon culture?
I can't explain it, but I know it's there.
And it seems invisible to the newcomers, and especially to the promotion-ally minded types.
I love to use the garage, for instance, but I've been given to understand that they manage to sell only about half as many tags for it as they expected. The buses look to me to be mostly empty.
I doubt the day will ever come that the Tower will pay for itself.
Just saying -- the assurances that these projects will be successful by the promoters need to be looked at a bit more skeptically. Taking into account the different culture here -- the cowboy, logging, I'll drive everywhere and park where I want--culture.
I always say we have a thin veneer of sophistication here, and while that gets most of the media attention, the underlying culture is much more conservative -- in lifestyle and politics -- than people seem to think.
Chuck was in yesterday, and I suggested that they take the second from the top level, or even the second and third levels from the top of the garage, and offer it to employees for a minimal cost. Say, 20.00 a month. If the tags are transferable, I'd think a responsible employer would be willing to buy one or two.
During the daytime, these levels have been 95% empty almost everytime I've ever seen them.
Color code them -- blue levels, or red levels, or something.
Not to say I told you so....well, maybe a little....but I've been suggesting this for years, now.
What about someone like me who is currently paying the 50.00 a month? Well, I'm sure some of us will keep the convenient parking on the lower levels, and others wouldn't. But I'm not suggesting this solution as a money maker for the garage, unfortunately, only as a possible solution to employee parking.
Which brings me to a second point.
I'm certain that some of you think I'm opposed to the garage, the buses, the Tower Theater.
What I'd like to point out is -- my contention from the beginning, and this is my judgment based on being a lifelong resident of Bend-- is that all three of these public 'good' projects would be underutilized.
And I was right.
I can't explain why Bend is so different, but I just believe that we don't get the same results here for public transportation, or parking garages, or public venues that places of similar size elsewhere. Demographics? Isolation? Eastern Oregon culture?
I can't explain it, but I know it's there.
And it seems invisible to the newcomers, and especially to the promotion-ally minded types.
I love to use the garage, for instance, but I've been given to understand that they manage to sell only about half as many tags for it as they expected. The buses look to me to be mostly empty.
I doubt the day will ever come that the Tower will pay for itself.
Just saying -- the assurances that these projects will be successful by the promoters need to be looked at a bit more skeptically. Taking into account the different culture here -- the cowboy, logging, I'll drive everywhere and park where I want--culture.
I always say we have a thin veneer of sophistication here, and while that gets most of the media attention, the underlying culture is much more conservative -- in lifestyle and politics -- than people seem to think.