A topic at Tuesday night’s informal meeting of the Tonawanda City Council was a complaint that there’s nowhere for shoppers to park on Main Street. Apparently, there are people working downtown who take up the parking spaces along the street instead of nearby parking lots to provide themselves a convenient short stroll from their cars to work.
With parking spaces taken up by the 9-to-5 crowd, the out-of-town customer heading to a shop or the hungry resident looking to pick up his take-out order are often faced with a long trek.
“You shouldn’t have to park three blocks away to get a cup of coffee,” Kory Schuler, president of the Swiftwater Merchants Association told me Wednesday. “A lot of the businesses rely on turnover traffic.”
I agree, especially when the city has a two-hour parking limit along Main Street. The city needs to enforce the two-hour limit and do more to encourage the use of nearby city parking lots.
Downtown Tonawanda is a far cry from downtown Buffalo. Still, the average workday employee in Buffalo doesn’t have the luxury of walking 20 steps from his car to his office or store; most likely he’s parking in a downtown garage or stepping off an NFTA train and walking a few blocks. People working in Tonawanda — or any downtown for that matter, large or small — should not have this privilege, especially at the expense of someone who’s looking to spend money downtown.
There are roughly 40 diagonal parking spaces on the east side of Main Street, and additional parallel parking spaces on its west side. Still, there’s plenty more spaces in nearby lots. While there is no individual “right” to on-street parking, one would think it would be wise to leave these spaces to people who are patronizing businesses. A lack of on-street parking can be a deterrent; a potential customer may end up driving to another business district to spend money.
Parking meters could be an answer but they are costly to purchase and install. Besides, Schuler said he doesn’t want to see metered parking along Main Street. Instead, he’d rather employees and customers alike show respect for the two-hour limit, along with enforcement by the police.
Asked by council members Tuesday about the situation, Chief of Police Cindy Young said one of the problems is with chalking tires, a method in which tires are marked by an officer. When the officer returns two hours later, he can determine if a car has moved by the position of the chalk. Unfortunately, in the winter it’s difficult to chalk tires, Young said, making it tough to determine if a car has moved. She added the department is looking into alternatives to mark the tires.
I’m interested to see how the police resolve the chalking issue. However, Schuler said the issue is a year-round problem, except on the weekends, when fewer downtown businesses are open and the parking limit is not in effect.
While the parking issue certainly needs to be resolved, it’s also a bit of a nice problem to have. In-demand parking spaces can be indicative of a thriving downtown. Schuler agrees that there are some good points to the parking conundrum.
“There’s life on Main Street and people aren’t used to the storefronts being full,” he said. “Every community runs into this problem when it’s successful.”
However, he believes that every person should have the same opportunity to park along Main Street. He points to parking lots behind the American Legion and near the Main-Niagara and Main-Young intersections as examples of abundant parking that could be used by people who need more than two hours downtown.
Even shoppers who are downtown for an extended period of time are likely planning on doing some walking themselves, so on-street parking wouldn’t be a concern for them.
“The main street should be for the visitors,” Schuler said.
With several take-out restaurants and other quick-service businesses along Main Street, it’s clear that customers should be given the priority for convenient parking. If it requires a few extra parking tickets to accomplish this, so be it. Here’s hoping that the 9-to-5ers wise up before they pay up.
John Hopkins is the night city editor of the Tonawanda News. His column appears Thursdays. Contact him at john.hopkins@tonawanda-news.com.
