Use of the parking garage emerged as a topic at Tuesday morning's merchant meeting.
There are two problems with the explanation above (particularly "evenings and weekends") as printed on recently installed exterior signage.
First, the print is too small to be gleaned by passing motorists who want to know the story without stopping. As most business owners would tell you, better to approach it like this, with a mostly truthful bait 'n' switch:
FREE PARKING
*with certain periodic exceptions
... and the interior signs make no mention of the free times. It's misleading, and the interior signs need to be brought up to date.
None of this explains the parking garage's chronic emptiness -- here, on a Wednesday evening around 7 p.m.
Part of it is cultural. Part of it is the idiocy of our auto-centric straitjacket. Part of it is the inability of downtown stakeholders to think consistently beyond their front doors, to the larger street (and parking) grid spread over numerous square blocks, one best understood (and overhauled) by urban-oriented solutions taking place all over the country.
But those parking garage signs ... at least they can be harmonized, can't they?
3 comments:
I agree that the print is to small but I hope that you were being tongue in cheek about your alternative. I don't do business with businesses who do that sort of thing.
Have no fear. It was a dose of impenetrable satire, but you got it.
Whew. I'm really starting to doubt myself. Kind of like when I gave you a beer report from TC that was pretty positive. I was doubting my tasting skills until you explained about the consultant hire.
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