Spot-less: Pool parking riles neighbors
Parking may be an issue for residents around Onesty Pool, which opens June 20 at 10am.FILE PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART
Kids may be thrilled that the new Onesty Family Aquatic Center is opening, but some neighbors of Meade Park, where the pool is located, have a different kind of feeling.
With capacity for 225 swimmers and only 36 parking spaces, pool neighbors fear that after opening day, June 20, the streets around the park will be filled leaving them nowhere to park in front of their own homes. Their concern mounted on Monday, June 15, when City Council delayed plans to issue street parking permits to residents.
“They used no forethought at all about any of the residents,” says Eleanor Wilson, who lives on Chesapeake Street, three houses away from the park.
"I feel betrayed," says Kevin Cox, who lives on Fairway Avenue and notes that it's not just the pool but also the City Market held Wednesdays at Meade that puts a strain on parking in the area. According to the city website, the pool will close on Wednesday's at 2pm to prepare for the market, which begins at 3pm, offering a half price daily admission.
"It's shocking to me," Cox says of Council's permit delay. "I think they care more about the success of the market than the people in the neighborhood."
Not so, says City Councilor David Brown.
“The problem is if we institute a permit program immediately, how can you gauge the problem?” Brown says. “I think we should make sure there’s a problem before we create a bureaucracy to solve it.”
City traffic engineer Jeanie Alexander echoes Brown’s sentiments.
“One of the perks of the council not picking up the measure is that we get a chance to see what the problem is,” Alexander says. “If they had put a restriction on it, we would have never known.”
Brown adds that starting permit parking would have created confusion surrounding the pool’s opening. It would be better initially, he notes, to “have the excitement of people coming to the pool, and not worrying where to park.” He also points out that permits are inconvenient not only for pool-goers, but for residents, who will have to go to City Hall to pick them up and who will have to pay $25 per space if they already have a driveway in which to park. (Those with no driveway can be allotted up to two free permits but must pay for any additional permits.)
But Brown insists he's not averse to issuing permits eventually, if they're needed.
“What we should not have is people having to walk several blocks to get to their own homes,” says Brown, who hopes the fact that the city has added a bus stop in front of the park will minimize the number of cars needing to be parked at or around the pool. A bike and pedestrian path from downtown to the park, he hopes, will also help with the parking issue.
Wilson, however, says parking is only one of her concerns– the other is safety of drivers entering and exiting the park on Meade Avenue.
With cars parked along the east side of the road, she says, “You couldn't see on your right, so you had to inch out to the double lines.”
Alexander, however, says there haven't been problems.
“We don’t have a crash history there,” Alexander says. “People are generally cautious, and if they feel uncomfortable, they usually take a different route.”
Residents will soon find out if their concerns are warranted, as the new Onesty pool will open Saturday, June 20, with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 9:30am.
58 comments
This thread actually made me chuckle just now. Kids playing outside all summer? Kids cutting grass? Those days seem to be gone forever. It's all about air conditioning, video games, and "what time will lunch and dinner be ready, what's the major holdup Mommy?"
Yup, especially their parents. The kids can ride the air conditioned buses for free this summer, though. And,right now, their parents can ride for 75 cents one way.
Rarely when I'm going about the city, do I see kids walking let alone playing outside. I don't know when I've seen one cutting the grass.
My goodness. Back when I was a kid, we played outside all summer long. You're telling me that kids these days can't stand being out of the air conditioning for 15 minutes straight?
I'll let you know, CVille Eye.
By the way, put me on the list of those who will never walk, ride a bus or roll in on a bicycle. I live too far to walk. I think the city busses are nasty and stink. And I don't do bicycles or motorcycles with the crazy drivers out there on the roads now.
But I do have free off street parking at a Meade Avenue resident's house just a block away. I also have free off street parking a block in the other direction. So I and my family won't be adding to the parking problems at any time.
It will be interesting to see how many families will walk tomorrow when it's forecasted to be around 93 degrees and humid. I hope someone of this blog will report.
Isn't it nice to have friends. Perhaps those who are not at home during the day will encourage their friends also to use their parking.
Richard, you should apply for Director of Parks & Recreation. :)
Richard, we share the same concerns, but I do not agree that adding more parking to Meade Park will make the neighborhood safer for children. In the long run, more parking means more cars. hands down.
Parking lots often follow an if-you-build-it-they-will-come pattern, and once parking is built it is there for a long time. A large lot, especially a free one in an urban area, will eventually be filled. It's not hard to imagine commuters from downtown spilling over if parking gets tight there. On the other hand, if viable alternatives exist, some people will opt for those rather than drive around the block. I keep hearing about the proverbial "hard cases" here (toddlers from Fry's Spring) but the shift will happen on the margins - those who could reasonably walk but have driven because it is convenient. I think Charlottesville residents are more progressive than people give them credit for. It's not hard to imagine families making a 10 - 15 minute walk to the pool. That's a lot of families.
"I’m asking the city to start thinking in terms of ramifications when they are making decisions before they spend millions."
I agree, the math is simple and the numbers don't add up. A little more planning on the front end, I'm sure, would have showed that more parking was needed. If they are spending all of this money to make a nice park and pool, why not go the extra mile and make sure the place isn't a pain to get to or around?
@Formerly Pave away, no, I'm certainly not asking the city to spend money on providing additional parking near the pool. I'm asking the city to start thinking in terms of ramifications when they are making decisions before they spend millions. Adding more parking will just encourage more non-residents of the neighborhood to stop driving to the pool.
The "idiots" are those who think that the government should just keep spending money until a problem (they created) is solved. They mistakenly refer to that as "living in a city." If they weren't idiots, they would realize that you can't cram everything you can come up with through a brainstorming process in 10.82 sq. mi. If they want to call me a whiner and a complainer, they can do so. However, they should realize that I can dish it as well as I can take it. Even better so.
I ask you ... would the city have allowed a private company to build the pool without adequate parking? Then WHY are they above the law?
Seems to me the city needs to follow its own rules.
The people you are telling to move are paying the taxes that allow you to use the subsizdized recreational facilities, such as pools. It is the height of stupidity for the City to turn a neighborhood amenity into a regional one and then act shocked when a neighborhood becomes overridden with people, traffic and parking problems. To those who are asking people to move, why don't you start paying some real taxes? Oh, that's right, then you would move.
And, only an idiot would think riding bicyles is a solution to the new problems that have been introduced into that neighborhood.
As for "whiners" and "complainers," you people always complain when the city doesn't fund every idea you come up with to provide you with something free/cheap. It's you people with that welfare/dependent child mentality that make sure that a council is elected that will enable you to live off of the hard work of others instead of your parents. I haven't hear Sick of the loac rambs ask anybody for anything.
And Realist, you're not. What a sad philosophy for any one that's living in America to have:
"People just need to shut up and get a life. It’s called living in the city. Things happen that are out of your control. It’s just the way it is."
If only carless people lived in the town of Charlottesville, do you really think the city would be able to provide you whiners and complainers about the whiners and complainers would have a pool to go to? Evidently the answer to "Do you think..." is "No."
People just need to shut up and get a life. It's called living in the city. Things happen that are out of your control. It's just the way it is. Sometimes it sucks, but sometimes it's awesome, like being able to do things w/o having to drive for 40 mins. C'ville goes out of its way to give ear to every complainer, when most cities just do things and make you deal with it. So to all of these Parkway, Meade Park, Belmont complainers, if you can't handle the heat...get out of the fire. MOVE.
Richard, I'm afraid a kid is going to get run over and killed. The city should have installed speed humps on Meade Avenue prior to this new pool opening.
People run up and down Meade Avenue 35 to 45 mph all the time. Some cars leave the ground when they come through the intersection of Meade Avenue and East Market. They will still be speeding when they get one block further down the road at the pool.
Let's just skip the pool, and pave the whole darn thing.
That should give plenty of room for the "2, 3, or 4 cars" each household has a right to store for free, courtesy of the city government.
Or we could just acknowledge that we have chosen to live in a city, and sometimes parking is not as convenient or cheap as we would like it to be. There's always walking, biking, and Charlottesville actually has a good transit system with a new stop right out front of Meade Park.
I plan on biking to the opening of the park to check it out next weekend, so anybody is welcome to use my three spaces.
Knowing how mean, spiteful and vindictive some people are, with good cause sometimes, I wonder how long it will be before Meade Avenue and Chesapeake Avenue residents start tossing a handful of 1" roofing nails out in the parking spaces in front of their homes every morning?
I love how you have to pay $25 to park on your own street, like you were the one responsible for causing the problem!!
Just wait, I'm betting there will be more on-site parking in the future. If things had been done the other way, and the pool was in the old site where it belongs, there would have been a hell of a battle to take the field for parking. That battle has been avoided by putting the pool there and leaving the hillside behind with nothing on it. I could easily see another parking lot behind with an entry at the bend in Fairway.
Anyone with a city funded project like this coming up nearby should be paying very close attention. What we've ended up with isn't even close to what was sold to the neighborhood and I know it's not over yet.
As an aside, every time I hear or read something David Brown has to say, I'm amazed at just how clueless that man is. City Council is all subluxated with him on board. Time to *adjust* him out of there.
danpri- You assume everyone has a driveway, or the money to build a driveway, or that the city will let them build a driveway. Many of these older neighborhood homes predate absolute care ownership, and were not built to hae driveways.
This is especially the problem in Belmont. I myself own a house that the city won' t let me build a driveway for, because my lot is long but narrow.
So, know what the frick you are talking about before you assume people aren't taking the middle america approach so convenient for you.
the city was absolutely stupid not thinking it through on the pool anymore than they have been over the supposed " Downtown Belmont" area, even though there is no such thing.
You can ad Graves St to the insane parking problems.
Galileo, there was lots of vehement opposition to moving the pool to the front. People have been very upset by losing the beautiful green space that defined both the park and entrance to the neighborhood for so many years. Unfortunately the City pretended there was a choice in the matter (the infamous "vote" that wasn't a vote). Also the neighbors who were pushing for the careful planning that covered all the bases like parking, the Market etc, were drowned out by the idiots who hadn't bothered to show up to any of the previous planning meetings. Those are the ill-informed idiots that have been claiming that the neighbors are against children having fun (people like danpri and Kevin Cox and other assorted red herrings), and are the same idiots that are trying to make the Market the scapegoat for the City's bad planning.
I forgot to mention. If someone does block a driveway or park in the lawn, I would call to get them towed. Not that the experience would be fun for anyone, but maybe people would eventually learn that they have to put their cars in certain places and not others.
Excuse the sarcasm. I think it's out of my system now. I understand that some people even living in the city are married to their cars and not about to file for divorce right away, but that's what the 36 spaces are for in my opinion. Typical parking minimums set in zoning codes have been way over the top, set for peak period worst case scenario, leaving too much pavement and too little park. This is especially true for a community pool, which is primarily meant to serve people within walking distance anyway.
Free and abundant parking encourages people who may have otherwise opted for a more sustainable and less expensive (to taxpayers) form of transportation to drive nevertheless. Limiting parking without eliminating it entirely is the best way to move forward, a nudge in the right direction. I think the Council is going about this in a smart way. Put in limited parking, see if people do the right thing, and if not mitigate the problem with permitted spaces. Very good.
Formerly Pave, what on earth makes you think this is a community pool? The previous pool was a community pool, and that's what this one was supposed to be as well. It's a "Regional Aquatic Facility."
What they did was get the people in the community to vote on whether or not they even wanted a pool at all. When the answer was yes, they then recreated it as a regional facility and put it in the front. No more input allowed after that.
Now they're promoting it all over Charlottesville as the city's best and brightest pool. Come one, come all. That's why parking is a concern. Seriously, parents from Frys Spring and Locust Grove aren't going to put their toddlers on a bus to get here.
If this were still a community pool of the size it was before, none of this would be an issue. We can't un-ring that bell.
I have to agree that this is not being promoted as a community pool at all. If it were a community pool, I, living in the county, would not have heard/seen so much build-up about how great it's going to be. I know many county folks who are excited about checking it out. And they'll all be driving. You don't create a facility with all the bells and whistles this facility will have and then say "it's just a little neighborhood pool."
Pave Away:Limiting parking without eliminating it entirely is the best way to move forward, a nudge in the right direction. I think the Council is going about this in a smart way. Put in limited parking, see if people do the right thing, and if not mitigate the problem with permitted spaces. Very good.
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I would agree if they had gone ahead and issued the parking permits and enforced it with a draconian flare. But they didn't, so limited becomes less limited for the guests, and more limited for the people who actually live there, and have no where else to park. After all, if theya re using public transit, their cars are staying home parked, right? :>>))
No, by doing it this way, you have just created an additional burden for the people living to subsidize the parking with their time and energy.
As I said, the same thing has gone on in Belmont, and the city tries to avoid it, and the locals continue to have to park a block away from their homes,and carry their groceries, and the cars keep coming.
It seems that sometimes it's best to stay off of City Hall's radar.
"Let’s just skip the pool, and pave the whole darn thing.
That should give plenty of room for the ââ?¬Å?2, 3, or 4 cars” each household has a right to store for free, courtesy of the city government." The residents have been doing that up until now. Sounds like somebody's in favor of being subservient to city government.
I'm glad that more and more people are beginning to see the duplicity with which the city government employs when dealing with the citizens. Fewer and fewer people are calling the residents "complainers" and "whiners," just those without a clue or working for City Hall continue to do so.
I do not object to people owning cars. I object to the entitlement some motorists feel to have said cars stored with no inconvenience for free at public cost. I do not appreciate my tax money being used to create a market incentive for driving, especially in the middle of a city. If people choose to drive (as they will) they should be responsible for the parking themselves. The free market has perfectly good ways of sorting this out.
Not everyone is in a position to walk or bus, but some are. All change occurs on these margins, so your anecdotal scenario of a Gordonsville commute is easily dismissible. As I said before, that's what the 36 spaces are there for. Many of us in Charlottesville do not appreciate the attempts to turn the city into another 29 corridor or Pantops (we have those already) to suit the convenience of motorists. We aspire to a livable city, and that is what a limited parking situation is a transition towards.
The parking situation on Chesapeake is awful right now. Since it's opening on Saturday this pool has never seemed to close either. It is the nicest pool in Cville. It is not a neighborhood park/pool, but an attraction that people are driving to from other neighborhoods. More foresight should have been taken with regards to the parking.
Thank you City - the new pool is a total hit - hundreds of City kids had a great time all weekend.
Welcome to living in the City all the belly aching about parking above - move to the county.
Walk or ride your bike, take the bus - you live in the City.
The city needs to add bike lanes coming to the pool in all directions to encourage riding and slow traffic down.
Over all - a great addition to the City
CVille Eye, I was ignoring Mr/Mrs/Miss Pave Away. The person obviosuly forgets this is the year 2009, not 1963 Mayberry. The person fails to realize the reason people have 2, 3, and 4 cars is the economy. The husband has to get to work. The wife has to get to work. And the spoiled brat in school has to have a car. I don't think the city has a public transportation system to get a Meade Avenue husband and resident to work at NGIC way out on 29 North. And I don't think any sane person is going to ride a bicycle to NGIC. And if the mommy works at a plastics manufacturing plant in Gordonsville as the marketing director, I don't think public transportation can help her as well. Ride a bicycle to Gordonsville? I don't think so. The bicycle and bus riding tree huggers who might be lucky enough to have a job on the downtown mall or closeby to their homes might as well get over the thought of people giving up their 2, 3 and 4 cars.
I agree. Complainers and whiners, especially SOLR should MOVE AWAY FROM CHARLOTTESVILLE PLEASE. Broad generalizations about people, conspiracy theories, "Big Dog". Holy crap, is this for real? My only hope is that some of these comments are written just to get people all stirred up. If that's the case, it's a good joke.
The pool rocks and is a great place for families and our citizens to be active and stay out of trouble. Kudos to the City!
A true visionary would ride a bike if they live in the area of the pool, there is also public transportation available. To bad Dave Norris doesnt live in the area, he would also let the pool goers use his bathroom right dave.
So -- now that the pool is open, and opened on a warm weekend -- is all this concern merited? Have the residents been having trouble parking?
Mr/Mrs/Miss Sam, I have never said the pool isn't the greateast thing since Baby Wipes and Huggies. I have said that perhaps the city should have put more thought into the parking situation and the safety issues brought on by the increased pedestrain traffic into and out of the pool. I would like to have seen speed humps before and after the block the pool is located in. And I would like to have seen nearby residents issued parking permit zones.
And yes, I will let Big Dog out to protect my property any time I feel like it. If you have a problem with this, I suggest you not trespass on my property at 2:00 a.m. in the morning. And after I personally witness Big Dog bite you, I hope you call the police and can explain to them why you were on my property in the first place breaking into my cars. Why is any of this so hard to comprehend? I'm getting tired of these gangsta wannabe 15 year old kids breaking into everything in the early morning hours. A car window replacement costs $200 so the little gangsta wannabes can steal $2.79 out of a cup holder. Makes a lot of sense, eh? By the way, "Big Dog" is a nickname.
M, I think only the resdients can answer your question. Only they know if the cars parked in front of their homes were theirs or those of pool visitors.
And I think "hot" weekends might be a better indicator if there are going to be problems. Hot, hazy and humid. There might 225 people in the pool, and 150 waiting in line to get in? If so, the parking situation is going to be a lot worse than it was Saturday.
Cville Eye. Let me get this straight. You are asking for more expenditure from the city in the form of increased parking, and you are equating all of the "idiots" who disagree with you with a welfare/dependent child attitude. A little ironic?
Angle parking won't work unless we eliminate Meade altogether - maybe that's what we should do.. my friend complains about this all day at work and to be honest, I'm really bored w/ the topic. I love the post about the bus-riding/bike-riding "tree-huggers." That's a stretch.
EM should read the post immediately following hers written by Sick Of The Local Rambos.
So when is the Olive Garden opening?
Pave, nothing about car ownership is "free at public cost" in the city. The more you own, the more you pay. The city decal fee is up to $30 and $35 a car now. On top of the personal property taxes. These are fees and taxes the tree hugging bicyclists don't have to pay twice a year.
Cars are a PITA sometimes though. The city is being ripped a new one right now with cars being broken into all over town. I can't imagine how the thugs are breaking into so many cars without being caught. There must be no police patrol in this city after 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. First time I hear somebody outside messing with my cars I am letting Big Dog loose on them. And I hope they call the police to report a dog bite. :)
angle parking instead of parallel parking would create more spaces tomoorow.
Moving away from the city is a bit of a stretch. I don't see how many people aren't seeing the potential problems here for injury to people. This isn't an argument about how great the pool is or if it's good for the city or should we be giving out permits for people or how inconvenient the whole this is ect. The real problem is, the obvious lack of parking will cause more congestion of cars looking for spots around the area and has to potential to get someone(children) going to or from the pool hurt. Honestly, I could give a crap about where "local" people are going to park, it's part of the problem but not the main one.
This isn't a restaurant in Belmont or a new business that has too little parking, this is an area that will have a large number of children walking or biking to and from at all summer long. The consideration by the city, on CITY property, could have been to do their best to protect those people and children who will be using the pool by assuring that there was enough parking. I'm not saying 225 spots are needed but only 36 spots means lots of traffic nonstop around the pool area.
Wow, it's always stunning to find out that people like Realist and Sam exist. So, if someone disagrees with a stupid decision, or tries to make the place they live better, you think they're whiners and complainers? What about the folks behind the civil rights movement? Whiners? What about the people that vote for change? Complainers?
So, let me get this straight-- in your tiny world, doing everything in your power to ensure that your government behaves with
responsibility and integrity is a bad thing?
You think the people in the Woolen Mills neighborhood should MOVE? Any chance you want to go into the neighborhood and tell them that? Didn't think so...
Moving away from the city is a bit of a streach. I don't see how many people aren't seeing the potential problems here for injury to people. This isn't an arguement about how great the pool is or if it's good for the city or should we be giving out permits for people or how inconveient the whole this is ect. The real problem is, the obvious lack of parking will cause more congestion of cars looking for spots around the area and has to potential to get someone(children) going to or from the pool hurt. Honestly, I could give a crap about where "local" people are going to park, it's part of the problem but not the main one.
This isn't a resturant in Belmont or a new business that has too litle parking, this is an area that will have a large number of children walking or biking to and from at all summer long. The consideration by the city, on CITY property, could have been to do their best to protect those people and children who will be using the pool by assuring that there was enough parking. I'm not saying 225 spots are needed but only 36 spots means lots of traffic nonstop around the pool area.
When I lived near UVA's stadium, we used to sell parking in our yard on game days. I've got 4 or 5 good spaces in my Chesapeake Street yard I'd rent out for $10 a day.
I live up the road from the new pool, and I think that not only parking but traffic in general is going to be terrible. I am not at all looking forward to the lines of cars driving around the blocks near the pool looking for spaces while I'm trying to get to or from work.
And come on, ââ?¬Å?We don’t have a crash history there,” Alexander says. ââ?¬Å?People are generally cautious, and if they feel uncomfortable, they usually take a different route.”
Wait until the pool is open, more cars and more kids running across the streets in front of those cars. Someone is going to get hit, no doubt about it. It happens everywhere in Charlottesville already, now wait until you have kids and frustrated drivers concentrated like this.
Something will be done eventually about the parking, and therefore the traffic, at the pool. Let's all hope it's BEFORE someone gets seriously hurt over it.
danpri, nice to see you spout off ona an area you obviously have so little knowledge of. There are unrelated adults living in some of the homes around that area, elderly people with grown children, etc. Some of these people have no driveways. And many of these neighbors are tired of visitors to the park blocking their driveways and parking on their lawns! This is a modest neighborhood, especially at the pool end, and the existing parking situation reflects that fact.
"I feel betrayed" whines a man who lives far enough away from the parking problems that it won't be any problem for him. "Wah wah, a farmer's market 4 hours a week puts much more imagined strain on me than a pool filled with 250 visitors open 9 hours a day and 7 days a week. Boo hoo, I have no sense of perspective." What a tool.
Welcome to Life near "Downtown Belmont," where the residents of Hinton, Goodman, Douglas, Monticello Road, Belmont Ave, Meridian, and Rialto face parking issues every night but Monday.
Great job, Council.
Richard, what do you propose should be done about the parking, aside from permits? I'm seriously asking here. Seems as though the city has extremely limited tools at their disposal to fix this mess they've caused.
Hey, "I'm Just Saying"-- no they don't! Planning Commissioner Dan Rosenzwieg says Belmont doesn't have a parking and traffic problem, and he should certainly know better than the idiots that live there. He's much smarter than they are, just ask him. Why, he used to live in Belmont a long time ago, back when it was just like the Wild West. He knows a lot of stuff about Belmont. Special smart person stuff. More stuff than you.
I think the Woolen Mills people might be hallucinating also. Thank goodness David Brown put the kibosh on those evil residents and their plans to take over the world via parking permits. Now the pool will be safe and there will be plenty of parking for everyone that doesn't live there. Best quote ever from a Councilor:
...It would be better initially, he notes, to ââ?¬Å?have the excitement of people coming to the pool, and not worrying where to park.”
Holly Edwards comes in a close second with her observations on patio dining and the hypocrisy of Belmont residents. Comedy gold!
Unsure Ground Zero. I think they missed the bus by not providing the right amount of parking in this upgrade to the park. I mean the article says it, 36 parking spaces for 225 visitors, or more than six people per car. I know that doesn't acount for the street parking but still, anyone can see those numbers are way off. Even if 100 of the visitors walk to the pool from the local area, that still leaves 36 spots for 125 people, not to mention the staff.
I think the "fix" will come in another costly project down the road. But at least for now we can keep watching the TV reports saying how the pool was $50,000 under budget. They should have used some of that money to buy some more pavement in my opinion.
Richard, there was no more room for no parking. The pool is too big for such a small park. The City screwed up hugely from the very beginning. At some point they made a unilateral decision that they were going to put a regional facility into a too-small park.
If I gave you a small piece of land like the pool's on-- 5 acres-- and for the sake of argument it's your lot and the lots of 10 of your surrounding neighbors and I told you to build a successful shopping area, what's the first thing you'd tell me? You'd say that lot size gives you only enough room for the stores and too little for the parking. If you were even a remotely responsible person, or cared about your neighbors, you'd have no choice but to make your shopping area smaller in order to accommodate more parking. Yes, that would cut down on your potential revenue, but if you're a responsible person that's what you'd do.
What you'd hopefully not do is continue to present this to your neighborhood as a few small area shops that won't get too many customers up until the very end of the planning process, and then pull the old switcheroo on them and tell them you were putting in a mall instead. If you were a good planner, you'd take a hard look at your surroundings, imagine the future, assess potential impacts. examine the infrastructure, and then plan for REALITY. What you wouldn't do is think okay, I need to put a super huge very successful and large facility somewhere in Charlottesville and I'm doing it here. You'd probably see that the possibilities were far too limited in that 5-acre spot and look elsewhere.
I don't know you, but think it's likely you're a good neighbor. So I'm guessing that you also wouldn't try to stick your poorly executed plan with its affiliated parking issues in that spot while making passive-aggressive statements like "the trouble with you neighbors is that you just don't like shopping and you don't want kids to have a fun place to hang out." Am I right?
galileo June 20th, 2009 | 4:27 am
Richard is essentially saying what I’ve thought for a long time now. More parking is coming. I have no doubt it was always planned that way. No business would be allowed to build a facility to serve that many people with that little in the way of parking. Any architect or planner would know that. The idea that people will be coming in busses is BS.
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Really???? Except that is EXACTLY WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN BELMONT. Let' s give 50 + seatng locations and only require them to have 4 parking spaces, in a neighborhood where there is often not enough room for parking on both sides of the street.
This is why Charlottesville is so screwed up. Ignorant oblivious people always have to pipe in before actually knowing what theya re talking about.
Danpri, this is the year 2009. Most families have 2, 3, and 4 cars.
Richard is essentially saying what I've thought for a long time now. More parking is coming. I have no doubt it was always planned that way. No business would be allowed to build a facility to serve that many people with that little in the way of parking. Any architect or planner would know that. The idea that people will be coming in busses is BS.
Parking is going to go on the hill in the back or where the restored wetlands were on the original plans. Those plans were only there to make the project look appealing and to distract the neighbors until the real plan was too far along to stop. That seems to be SOP for the city. The city can get away with it because people don't follow what happens in other neighborhoods.
I'm really surprised that there hasn't been more anger expressed about the loss of the playing fields. That didn't have to happen and I miss seeing the kids out there.
So why dont the people just park in their driveways? That is what I have to do. I would love to have a much bigger lawn and make the city responsible for my parking areas. But they never seem to come and seal my driveway or repave it, or patch it or...
Ah well, we will see today what will be. I would suspect that opening day on a very hot sunny weekend will pretty much max out the attendance.
Its not like no pool was ever there before. It was just made more fun for families. Shame on Charlottesville for making something more fun for families!
pave away: That is of course the typical sarcastic comment that attempts to avoid the issue. Of course in town parking is expected to be more limited for everyone. However, thats why you have to have a parking plan, that accepts that many Charlottesvilleians, not just the residents, want to remain married to their cars. Nor is it an excuse for people to have you block their driveways or use their lawns.
I applaud your desire to ride, and hope you can influence those who do visit to be mindlful of such possibilities.