Now here you go Steve…uncovering (or making public) an obvious flagrant abuse of power. Yes, parking is tight downtown and no one likes to walk too far for anything (regardless of what office they have)….but is it necessary to block the entire sidewalk? NO

Why aren’t they taking the metered spots like the police do just around the corner.

Even if the sidewalk is not used much during the day is absolutly no excuse. This is just plain carelessness and….well you get the picture.

Oh, and I think they are suppose to be redeveloping the Kiel but I really don’t recall anything since Breckenridge pased away.

Parking is not tight downtown. There is plenty — maybe not at the Front Door. I was in an office on the 12th floor of a downtown building. the top floors of all of the parking garages were empty. The Circuit Attorney should get the cars off the sidewalk. I have been by there before and usually it is the Sheriff’s office vehicles that are parked on the sidewalk.

Joyce should concentrate on getting convictions of the thugs and delinquents that plague St. Louis and its reputation.

I have a tendency to bump into side-view mirrors a lot and leave them pointing at odd angles when I find vehicles on the sidewalk . . .

Still no excuse – they make good money, and they should expect to pay for the privilege of parking downtown, just like private-sector employees. Or, better yet, just use public transit!

This is a personal pet-peeve of mine as a longtime downtown resident. I have been stewing a long time about the parking ‘priveleges’ of City employees. It is an example of the beaurocratic ‘wink-nudge’ insider-only mentality at its best.

Any time I walk over to City Hall for business, I note just how much of the available PUBLIC parking around City Hall is abused by those with the photocopied “Official City Business” documents. Hundreds of parking meters on Chestnut, Market, Tucker, 13th, Pine, etc, etc are blocked from public use all day, every day by this provincial process.

When all the meters are taken, city employees deign themselves important enough to park in crosswalks, at the end of accessible ramps, and in turn lanes.

How convenient that city employees get themselves free parking at the public’s expense whilst the public, stripped of spaces provided for their use, are forced to pay much more at the City Hall lot in order to do civic business.

I am reminded of the board members who years ago were abusing their ‘Board of Education Emergency’ stickers to park wherever they wanted, day in and day out. Who ever heard of a ‘Board of Education Emergency’ anyway? What kind of rubes do they take us city residents for? Simply infuriating!

and to clarify, I don’t think the acutal attorneys get these parking spaces…they are for the investigators who come and go all day. I believe most of the attorneys park at the Keil garage and walk. They do pay for parking.

There are not enough parking downtown, those empty garages you speak of are owned by At&T and not for the general public. I work downtown and have to feed the meter ever 2 hours, I wish the city would make the meters up to 8 hours I would still pay the same but I wouldn’t have to go and feed it 4 times a day. The city has a large plot of land just across the street from the Civil Courts Building to the east with what they call “ART” rip that rusted pile of scrap metal out, pave it and charge city employees a monthly fee, hell do a payroll deduction from our pay checks if you want to, I’m willing to pay $50.00 a month if this was done, the first few months the city would recoup the expense of blacktopping the lot, and striping it, the rest would be 100% money in the city’s pocket. If you figure they could get 100 parking spaces on that lot and they could figure 100 X’s 50 a month =’s to be $5,000 a month, X’s 12 =’s to be $60,000 a year, let keep going after 5 years it jumps to $300,000.00 I could go on and on. That pure profit for the city, they may have to clean some snow off every now and again, but think if some one parked there that wasn’t supposed to be they get towed, and well that more money in the city’s pocket. Look I’m not a very educated man, but come on people take a look at the lot. Lets help our city workers and get that pieces of SH-T out and start putting some money in the city’s pocket (as if they need any more) it would at least help out some employees. Just a thought let me know what you all think. If your not familiar with the “ART” I’m speaking of go downtown and take a look. Oh yeah one more thought, most city employees are off work at 5pm not all but most, so on nights there is a Cardinals game rent the spots for 5 bucks, 100 spot X’s $5.00 well you get the picture. Thanks for letting me vent. I just get so frustrated when someone like me can figure out how to help the parking problem and make the city some money………

[UrbanReviewSTL --- Well, I am no more a fan of paved surface parking lots than I am of the art, "Twain."  Gee, if only they had put underground parking along the Gateway Mall between 9th & 11th. 

The real solution is to look at all the parking downtown --- on-street, surface lots and garages.  There are many streets downtown that don't have on-street parking yet there is plenty of width to do so.  Furthermore, there are streets that could handle angled parked rather than simply parallel.  Nobody is taking the lead in good parking management practices  in downtown St. Louis. 

For your situation I suggest you look for places where you can do a monthly lease on a parking space, there must be something you can get for $50/month.  That would free up the metered space for people like myself that need to come downtown on a short term basis.] 

Steve-

I noticed you let Bill 1 slide on the fact that as one of our faithul civil servants he gets up from his desk 4 times a day and takes a 20 minute break to go feed the meter, which of course costs him more money and requires more walking than just parking in a lot somewhere there is space. And let’s be realistic all the city employees are gone at 5 (except Barb G who retreats to her coffin in the basement)

[UrbanReviewSTL --- Yes, I let that one go --- I just didn't feel like attacking a new reader yesterday.  Today, however, is a different story.  How many city employees do we have doing such a thing?  Are their bosses "unaware" of this practice?  On the positive side it does create activity on the street, at least the appearance of pedestrian life.]  

Bill 1, the site on which Twain now sits will be the terminal for the new Market Street airport. Haven’t you seen the plans?

By the way, take a walk around Twain. It is really a good piece of art (and it would be a lot better without the marks from spray-paint removal).

If anything, St. Louis needs LESS parking and MORE green space. This place looks like ass. I worked downtown for years (and wish I still did) at all kinds of locations and never had any trouble finding parking readily available and for under $2/day. The particular style of “art” may not be your cub of tea, but a plain grassy field with a few benches would be 100x more desireable than another slab of blacktop IMHO. If you have any doubts as to the negative effects of lack of green-space in our environment, look no further than the Oct 2006 issue of National Geographic magazine discussing initiatives in Paris for parks and green space, along with the backing studies.
If you’re having trouble finding parking downtown OFF-STREET, I contend that either you are not looking hard enough, or are just plain lazy.

Just one note. The city prosecuting attorneys by and large make little money. Low 30′s to start and typical city increases after that. Especially whne you figure in teh cost of law school loans, $95 a month for down town parking is quite a bit. Most hold down 2nd jobs and of course there is high turnover in the office. Of this is more do to excess lawyers in our society, the city is just following economics and taking advantage of the situation.
Anyway, I do not think that parking on the sidewalk is good. I think the city should take steps to provide some sort of parking for city employees. But I do think that rather than taking it out on the employee’s cars who park, (as suggestedby one post) e-mails should be sent to the people at top such as the city attorney, Joyce, who does make a pretty hefty salary and the benefits of a political position.