The Observation Deck

It appears the City is willing to "donate" $150,000 to a very irresponsible absentee landlord to expand parking around the Edwards and Detroit Avenue area.

In today's market and considering the deplorable condition of the houses the two homes together aren't worth more than $200,000, if that. If parking is needed in that area the City should pay the owner the $200,000 the homes are worth and build a City parking lot.

If the new parking is needed for the "Y" I suppose it would be money well spent. I am not sure I would support a new parking lot to subsidize the "punch" bars in the area.

On the other hand if the City has $150,000 for a development project is that the first project you would think of?

How about some help for the Rockport Square Development?

How about some help to find a Trader Joe's or similar store for the soon to be abonded Giant Eagle on Detroit? Or must we settle for a flea market?

Or is the City telling us that there is an unlimited supply of development money available so there is no need to prioritize? The City has many unmet needs. Why is punch bar parking a priority?

Maybe the different way to look at it is this: in every discussion about development on the Observation Deck it always comes down to parking. We have all these great ideas for development but in the end it comes down to "if we build it, where will they park?" In fact, wasn't there a discussion on the chicken and egg problem...as in, which came first?

As for the "punch bars" being the best use of this parket lot (if we assume the "Y" is only the day customer of said lot) this would also be a positive. I again remember reading posts and even PD articles on the fact that people on side streets around the corners from bars are sick of people stumbling around and making noise at night (at best) or stumbling around and vomiting or urinating on their lawns (at worse). Now they can all stumble around in a parking lot instead of on the side streets. Win-win in my opinion.

But honestly, anything that adds parking to the city is a bonus in my book, though I wish they had done so on Madison where that section of street where it is getting a rep for out of towners to come drink on a strip of bars. At this point I think we need to spend money on infrastructure first. If there are places to park businesses might take the time to look into spending money in our city on new development. If there isn't parking, why would new businesses even think about it? Build a new business in hopes that the city someday supports them with more parking?

Hi,
Parking is an issue throughout Lakewood's commerical corridors Detroit and Madison. I'm all for our elected officials solving this problem of parking and I understand we will probably need to spend money to solve the problem.

I just wish with money being so tight they would spend the little money they have available to benefit as many people/businesses as possible.

For $ 150,000 we could have had many more parking spaces spread throughout Detroit and Madison by implementing angled parking.

Angled parking benefits many more people than this one lot in this much needed area. I'm not sure the 1 lot will provide more parking even in that 1 area than angled parking would make available in that area. How many extra parking spaces is this planned to give the these bars?