Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Five Points has more parking now...if you're into that sort of thing

Say hello to the new center of Five Points: Some Parking Meters
I took this snapshot with my camera while stopped at the light going Northbound on Harden Street this afternoon. What you're seeing as an empty parking lot with little green meters is what used to be the old Exxon Station. Needless to say, I'm...underwhelmed.

I never really thought that parking was a huge problem in Five Points to begin with, so adding more parking spots seemed like a solution in search of a problem that didn't exist. I eat lunch at The Gourmet Shop every once in awhile, and I never have problems finding parking. I go to Five Points for the "Fridays after Five" at the fountain, and again, I don't have problems finding parking. But maybe the rest of y'all are having problems, who knows? And we're talking what, maybe 16 spaces from the look of it? Okay. Is that really going to make a big dent?

In any event, I'm never going to be convinced that the highest and best use of a central piece of real estate, on a corner, in the central hub of a place like Five Points is just a parking lot. It could have been a restaurant, a bar, retail, whatever. Heck, you could have made it some sort of green-space, and I probably wouldn't have a big problem with that.

But parking? Come on.

3 comments:

  1. A parking lot there was no one's first choice, but studies repeatedly show that parking is problem in Five Points. You must have good parking karma.

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    1. I make up for it with getting stuck in bad traffic karma.

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  2. ridiculous - but at the bottom of it is surely some regulation written by an unelected functionary who through the Peter Principle has made his/her or its way to the power to regulate our lives

    NOW _ here is a question for you - I see that the State of South Carolina has spent some amount of money repairing the Columbia Canal - Why? the canal has always been a revenue producing private entity - now it is a revenue producer for the City of Columbia Water Dept and SCE&G - It produces revenue and has for as long as i have been alive - so why should State taxpayer money pay for its repair? - the City and SCE&G should repay the State for every penny they spent there - otherwise the thing should not have been repaired -

    Hampton's Redshirt

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