For two and a half years I lived on the corner of Capitol and Hudson. A beautiful one bedroom basement apartment in one of the many incredible brownstones on the block. I was working at the time at The Bushnell Center for Performing Arts and had a relatively short commute of about 5 minutes by foot. I was a hop, skip and a jump from Bushnell Park (Monday Night Jazz) and Downtown. I was right off the highway and a 10 minute walk to Park Street for cheap beer and good food. My problem…I owned a car. A 1995 (or was it ’97) Jeep Cherokee Limited Edition with seat warmers which didn’t work but people would swear to feeling the heating sensation on their tuchas when they pressed the button. If I couldn’t use my landlords parking spot, I would literally have to drive near Park Street, park the car and walk to The Bushnell to avoid tickets. In the 2 1/2 years of living there, my car got broken into three times, towed once, and ticketed more times than you can shake a stick at…ok, that makes NO sense, but I got alot of tickets.
This was back when the Capitol Avenue area housed practically the only residents in downtown other than the hermits in the Bushnell Towers (really, does anybody know anybody who lives there?) Now with over 10 residential projects either finished or on the way to completion, parking for downtown residents will become a serious issue. Julie over at Live in Hartford has a post on her experiences as a downtown resident.
Up until these past couple years, I always felt that the only parking issue we had in downtown was the serious perception problem. That changes with the hopeful influx of more people to the area. Unfortunately, downtown does not have a grocery store so needing a car for that alone is a must. This means that there will be more cars competing for a never changing number of on-street spaces. So the “parking problem” which has existed in the minds of many will become a very real issue in the not too distant future, if it’s not already. Hence, restaurant, club and event patrons have to become more knowledgeable with the many surface lots and garages in downtown. And trust…there’s a bunch.
The City alone (via the Hartford Parking Authority) owns and manages three parking garages in the city: The new Morgan Street Garage, The Church Street Garage and the MAT Garage which is also on Church Street. Over 4400 parking spaces within those three garages alone…I don’t see why we can’t offer some sort of super discounted resident overnight parking for people. It’s all easier said than done, but I’ll ask and see how fast they say NO.
Next, on to the perception issue…how does one disprove a negative. Weapons of Mass Destruction…prove to us you don’t have any!! {d’oh!} The aforementioned (I’ll have to look, but I’m pretty sure that’s the first time I’ve used that word) HPA has a really nice map outlining where parking exists and for how much. This is a beginning. Printed brochures should be made by the thousands and put up at regional tourist sites like the Essex Steam Train and Boat Ride. An easy to remember website (hartfordparking.com, downtownparking.com, parkhartford.com, you get the idea) should exist where people can easily go and get reminded on what’s available. Finally, merchants in downtown have to do their part and get the word out. If there’s a website, put it in your ads….brochures? carry them in your restaurant? It’s took a while to get this bad rep…it won’t reverse overnight…but it has to start happening yesterday.
Julie reported that the Young Professionals Task Force talked about a resident parking pass…this sounds interesting. The good sign is taht someone is actually talking about solutions. Let’s see what comes of it. Any ideas? …
I was parking in the Morgan St Garage for work (CCC), but then because of issues with space (b.s.), they sent part-time employees to park in the surface lot under the highway at the end of that road. Yeah, that lot way way back from any buildings. Of course, I’m thinking this has more to do with piss-poor planning on the part of CCC than it does with Morgan St. Garage management. Even if someone has to park on the roof, there’s room…like 8 floors of it.
[...] the deal breaker for some who are thinking of moving to the city. Trying to arrange less expensive overnight parking in the city’s parking garages could be one solution, as suggested by Luis Cotto. The pricetag [...]
You’re not going to see a fix for the parking issue, or any others (crime, the Library, etc) until you get a mayor and administration who care about fixing the problems.
The ball is rolling for improvement – the building boom has pretty much wrapped up, and there are now beaucoup apartments.
Rather than complain about how The Courant allows people to swear on their message boards, he (Perez) needs to work on improving the quality of life in the city. More cops, lower taxes, cleaner and safer streets, and more events downtown will go a long way to improving the image of ‘New England’s Rising Star’.
I moved out of Hartford in April as a compromise with my girlfriend, and let me tell you, I could have slid like scrooge mcduck into a pit of my parking tickets by the time i left huntington st. worse than the police’s appalling ticket happy practices – flake of snow in danbury? TICKET EM!! car parked on odd side of street at 807 AM? TICKET EM!! one time i literally got a ticket at 4 AM – did a hartford cop really have nothing better to do at 4 AM on huntington st than ticket me? – is the HARTFORD PARKING AUTHORITY. The people i’ve encountered there are mean, rude, unforgiving, and provide me the only reason i have to be relieved i’m no longer in da beat.