Downtown Parking: Driving People Away?

[grock]

I've been noticing the city is putting red "no parking" bags over the meters on many nights. Last night all the meters on Church Street were bagged, along with ones on Trumbull both in front of and across from the Civic Center. Probably a few dozen spots in all.

Why?

Most of the spots were empty.

Imagine if they did this in West Hartford Center.

[drc72]

Very odd indeed?

[MichaelQReilly]

I've noticed this for a while. I don't mind walking, so I will usually try and park on the far side of Bushnell when I come into the city at night, but half the time all the meters have the no parking sign. I makes zero sense to force people to pay to park in a lot when there is plenty of on street parking in down town. No doubt it has something to do with helping out the corrupt and politically connected surface parking lot operators.

[beerbeer]

Yep, it is stupid as hell.

[The Voice of Reason]

OK, so this has to be the third thread about this subject since I started following these boards almost 2 years ago.

It must be a problem if it keeps popping up, but is it not usually just due to some kind of event?

I have seen the bags many times when there was a concert at the XL Center, and its mainly for secuity reasons etc. Was there a basketball game that night? Church street could be due to an event at theaterworks as well.

Also why is it a problem to pay for parking when coming downtown?

in every city in this country I expect to pay for parking when I head downtown. why should Hartford be different?

I would love for there to be a commuter rail to give people options on that front, but I have no problem with a parking space costing me 7 bucks for the night. its a steal compared to any other city of any decent size.

I actually get free parking, but sometimes we take my wifes car and have to pay.

I am not saying you shouldnt complasin or that its a great parking city because its frekin not.

so the other day I had to pay LAZ to park in the Quincy Mass T station. I would like to think that a small amount of that money went back to Hartford since we have the LAZ HQ

I dunno.

Hartford really is "Parking city USA"

[grock]

Shouldnt have to pay 10 dollars to run in for a quick dinner.

We need to stop comparing Hartford to other cities. Providence, Boston, NYC all have shopping and more attractions

[mikel]

To answer the question, the reason the bags go up is for events at the Civic Center. Usually so the police can park in their private vehicles to get overtime, or the friends of the police, but officially it's for traffic reasons. Which makes sense to me, loads of cars fill up Trumbull and Church St before and after concerts and UConn games (which anyone familiar with the area would avoid during the these times).

The problem is they put the bags up on Fridays now for Saturday or Sunday events. You can pretty much ignore the bags until the event, when they often tow, but it obviously drives people away. I will park there on a Friday night when I know it's for a Saturday afternoon game.

My problem with parking is that I think almost every street downtown should have parking on both sides. Asylum, Church, Main, etc. Including during rush hour. Our city streets should not be a highway, let people get stuck in traffic if they choose to drive down them, but we need the parking spaces. Cars on the street make pedestrians feel safer, this is proven.

[mikel]

To amend my last post, I don't know why Church Street was blocked off for so long. Maybe for Hartford Stage?