Riverside Info » About Riverside

Parking Observations

(2 posts)

  1. ChrisHajer
    Member

    I didn't know where best to post this, these anecdotal parking observations in our CBD.

    Today about 7:15 the family headed over to Grumpy's and we took note of the number of cars parked on Burlington. Burlington was pretty full up from Riverside Bank all the way to the jeweler, and the post office parking lot was full, except for a few spaces, and then about 5 spaces along the tracks (south of the mailboxes) in that lot were full too. We ended up parking where Dan parks normally, between the back door of the post office and the tracks.

    I was thinking at the time if we had just one more successful business on Burlington, open at those hours, that we'd really have a parking problem. As it was, with just 3 businesses open, the spots were pretty much taken up. I was thinking if a successful business moved into the VC corner space, like another restaurant, we'd really, rally have a problem.

    Then I started thinking about towns like Oak Park with their parking garages (I know of three that I use pretty regularly: I never end up parking right in front of the store or restaurant I am patronizing in Oak Park) and how far a walk it is from the garage to my destination.

    We also took note of the number of empty spaces in the St. Mary parking lot and Riverside Foods as well.

    We also took note of the window stickers on the cars. On the 20 cars we checked on the walk back from Grumpy's to our car it broke down about like this, in order of frequency:

    Chicago
    Riverside
    Brookfield
    No sticker
    Berwyn
    Out of state

    For all I know there was one big party with a lot of out-of-town guests there.

    Posted Saturday Oct 3, 2009 20:58 #

  2. mr
    Member

    I was at Chew Chew about 1:00pm. A woman came in an handed Scott a large box that looked like it held a cake. Perhaps the woman was delivering the cake for the evening party.

    As I understand it, Riverside Foods does not want people parking in their lot when they are closed. They get deliveries after hours. I think that a place like St. Mary's is not going to "invite" parking for non participants in Church activities. I think there are liability and insurance issues. I believe there is a different standard of care owed "invitees".

    I agree that Oak Park has several parking garages and they are not super convenient to the stores. Still, parking in Oak Park is a hassle. For a quick in and out of a store, do you really want a two block walk? If you plan to spend a few hours there, the walk isn't a problem. Time limit expirations on meters is also an issue. Occasionally, I take those classes at Flavors in Forest Park, and you have to be careful where you park because classes are three hours and the meter limit is two hours.

    The fact of the matter is that a business like Chew Chew made a major investment in Riverside, and would like a relatively small investment in existing property. The investment would not make the use of the lots irreversible in the future. Also, the "green" parking lot that Fred describes might be a morale booster for people who live here as well as the business community. It is nice to see a "forward" looking invstment rather than a stagnant gravel lot or two homes that are not consistent with the whole FLO thing that is so sacred to so many people.

    Posted Sunday Oct 4, 2009 09:13 #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.