Friday, February 06, 2009

Premium Parking?

GREENVILLE - “It can't be done.”

That's what Mayor Heather McTeer Hudson says to the question: “Why can't we have diagonal parking on Washington Avenue?”

A memo to the mayor from Lorenzo Anderson, interim city engineer, explained the city's position on the issue of parallel vs. diagonal parking.

“As previously discussed concerning the diagonal parking on Washington Avenue from Walnut Street to Delesseps Street, the MDOT's (Mississippi Department of Transportation) Roadway Design Manual requires 27 feet for diagonal parking maneuver.

“In order to have only two lanes of traffic with diagonal parking on both sides,” Anderson wrote, “we will need a total of 80 feet from curb to curb. Currently the width of the street is 67 feet from curb to curb. The current width of the street is not adequate to safely accommodate diagonal parking on both sides of the street.

”The city must comply with state and federal regulations when it uses state and federal funding, Hudson said. The fact that some cities still have diagonal parking in tight spots doesn't matter, she said, because if such situations arose now, where a city was basically reconstructing a street using federal dollars, that entity would have to abide by the new standards.
“The street is only 67 feet wide,” Hudson said. “The numbers just don't add up. Basically, you need 80 feet across to have diagonal parking, we only have 67.”

Where did the space go? There was diagonal parking on alternating sides of the street. Considering there are only about ten businesses left on Washington Avenue, this shouldn't be rocket science.

In as much as we are the "fattest" state in the nation, it might do us well to have to walk half a block!

Forthright

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is nothing down town that I want to go to anyway!! As long as I can get my boat to the lake, I'm good!

Anonymous said...

Talking about welfare and pork check this website out, http://farm.ewg.org/farm/region.php?fips=MS02

Anonymous said...

Guess the Mayor should have done her homework before screwing up the parking.

Anonymous said...

It was a done deal from the beginning. Way before the street was torn up it was discussed and decided by the Mayor and Council, in spite of protests from the citizens. Now, the Mayor has Federal funding and backing for what was always meant to be.

No doubt the rules are there now from the Dept. of Transportation, the question is why the council did not seek widening the street to meet the criteria if it was possible.

The joke is or will be that it really will not matter. There will be plenty of empty slots available to pull right into easily because there is not much downtown to park for and doubtful that there ever will be with this leadership in place! So in the end, it really does not matter how the parking is, no matter, it will be mostly empty!

Anonymous said...

Question for readers--If your neighbor put her open bag of trash in your can (after the trash had already been picked up)would you say something to her? Since I only have one trash can, and pick up is only once a week, I need the space for my own garbage. She could've put it in my can BEFORE the city picked up and I never would have known. She certainly could have asked me (but we don't speak). If I had done this to her, she would most likely have thrown a "fit".

Anonymous said...

Unless YOU want to scrounge through your can to remove it and place it back on her steps or in her can, which would only be right, this time I would let it slide. At least, leave her a note on her door, to say that if she has an overload next time to be sure it is picked up by the city with your garbage, if you have the space allowed. Otherwise, do like the rest of us and stack it high as you can and hope it does not fall out as it is being picked up or wait til the can has been emptied once, then place the can on the other side of the street and have it emptied again, even Carl McGee admitted to doing this in recent council minutes...thank the Mayor and the Council while you are at it!LOL

Anonymous said...

thank you 9:43, very good advice!

Anonymous said...

Just load it up and throw it in the Wal-Mart parking lot. It looks like everybody else does. What a pig pen the parking lot is. Why would people throw there garbage out of their car in the lot.

Anonymous said...

Why? Cause they don't want to ride around in a filthy car, so they would rather create a filthy world....plus they are too lazy to do much more!

Anonymous said...

Hey group, it ain't just Wal-Mart. Ride down Cypress Lane and look at our "preserve". Cans, bottles and fast food bags are floating everywhere. I guess it's a good place to ditch your beer cans on the way home from the "entertainment district". Low-life people have no pride in their community. I have to pick up trash in my front yard three times a week from lazy SOBs who have no conception of the word "litter"! A dirty city is a sign that the majority of residents JUST DON'T CARE!

Anonymous said...

Never have a business next door to a convenience store!
"That's all I have to say about that!"

Anonymous said...

The citizens of Greenville who care need to take action when they see someone littering. Call 911 and report the tag number, if it happens driving or while parking. Maybe, if we all did this, some of these jerks would finally get the message...oh wait, these same people leave small children and pets unattended in cars, their children ride in their laps while they drive or the children stand in their moving vehicles and wear NO seatbelts...in comparison, litter would be last on the list, but it is a start!

I called the cops one night when leaveing Wal Mart, As I approached my car I found 4 small children, all under the age of 10 years old, left unattended at on a hot July evening, mosquitos out in force. The doors were unlocaked, windows down and the baby was crying for moma, while the siblings tried to cope. The mother came out as I stood by waiting for the cops to appear, she denied that the kids were alone as if I was nuts and jumped in her car and took off. Luckily, I had already made note of her car tag.

When the cop got there, I am not kidding now, his response to my story was that there was nothing to be done about it, that was just how Greenville was!!!!! I pushed and made him make out a report, later I called the then Chief with not much better response. As a last resort, I called the welfare office, I heard the cop getting her name from the tag. I reported her for child neglect and they said it would be investigated by one of their Social workers. Who knows if any thing came of it, but at least I tried and did not just walk by that night. More of that needs to happen in this city, people have to care to make it better!

Anonymous said...

Now that brings up a whole other conversation. The Dept. of Human Services around here is so overworked and underpaid that they probably looked at your report and rolled their eyes. You'd be lucky if that parent recieved some training in how to parent, because there surely was no threat to lose her kids for what she did. If we lived in most other states, there would be something to answer for if she left her kids in the car alone on a hot, summer evening!!

Anonymous said...

hot or not no responsible parents should leave children in a car alone. you can bet if something happened to those children they'd be the first to sue wal-mart, call a lawyer or call the police all the while never admitting they did anything wrong. Parent is the wrong word for these people. they are not parents. all they did was give birth and collect welfare and ssi payments. these are not children to them--they are ways to make money. have you heard them "talk" to the kids, it's nothing but screaming and cursing. If you criticize them, you are being racist or insensitive. I feel so sorry for the kids!