One of the downsides of the steady
progression new business opportunities, otherwise known as
re-gentrification, in presently lower income residential parts of
town is the impact of parking created by non-local clientele. It is
evidencing itself along Jefferson St and, to some extent, North
Limestone beyond Sixth St. On site off street parking is at a
premium and on street parking can create neighborliness as well as
safety issues.
Though I am not a beer drinker, I have
been to the West Sixth Brewing building on several occasions and some
of them were real “events”. Their expanding scope and number of
symbiotic tenants in addition to other outside developments point to
the need for more parking in the area, hopefully without raising the
ire of local residents.
Let us hope that they will not follow
examples from the past.
The University Plaza shopping center
was built in the early '70s, just about the time that campus and city
planners were looking at ways to relieve the central campus of
through traffic by building wider new streets.
Cooper Dr was being connected, the
Kirwan-Blanding towers complex built and University Dr was to
continue on, bisecting the Clifton Heights/Aylesford subdivisions and
following a widened Woodland Avenue to Main St. The neighborhood was
declining and the University had its sights set on expanding
eastward.
Euclid Avenue, and it continuation The
Avenue of Champions, was to connect the growing Tates Creek Pike area
with the then proposed roadway through Davis Bottoms and on toward
Newtown Pike at its intersection at West Main St.
The intersection of a widened Euclid
and a probably four-lane Woodland Avenue appeared to be prime real
estate for a commercial center which would only grow larger with the
added student population. The North – South Expressway was set to
slice between the campus and downtown, Urban Renewal was moving ahead
along Main and Vine and the “muscle car” age of the automobile
was powering along. Nobody even saw the “gas crisis” of “73
until OPEC became a household word.
The University Plaza was also the site
of a small dining/disco named the Library Lounge. A sedate
restaurant during the day and a tight packed, meat market, dance club
at night. It was a place that you could take your parents to lunch
when they were in town, then tell them that your were spending your
evenings at the library – implying that you were studying.
The limited parking, which is no better
today, meant that patrons would park some 1 ½ to 2 blocks away and
not blocking residential driveways was not always a top priority.
Towing services sometimes had get creative in order to remove
vehicles. Parking problems, the perceived need to drive there and
the waning of disco led to the demise of the Library, while the
roadway expansions faded into just memories.
There were numerous contentious
encounters between the neighbors and the University Plaza/Library
owners which don't seem to be occurring as yet on the North side of
town. I doubt that many residents can fully comprehend the effect
that the new BCTC campus will have on the neighborhood or what
increased business will do to North Limestone and I am leaving out
the concept of removing the one-way status.
Today's mass transit environment is
vastly different that the '70s and even the taxi service is much
improved. I also believe that efforts are being made to keep all
parties involved in what is happening, yet still I can see evidence
that elements of neighborhood resistance are present.
When dining with the family last Friday
at County Club, I again noticed that the parking lot of the Pilgrim
Baptist Church was gated and locked and streams of autos cruised by
looking for a space to park. It is certainly within the purview of
the church to control their property but to some it looks like an
opportunity for revenue enhancement. Maybe this is will sort itself
out over time as it has in many other locations and become a benefit
for all concerned.
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