Street Department Issues Valet Permits to Copia & Lucas Park Grille
We have no valet parking ordinance in the city but the city’s Street Department has issued numerous permits to at least two high-end restaurants. Lucas Park Grille holds roughly six permits for numerous parking spaces in the 1200 & 1300 blocks of Washington Avenue for Thursday-Saturday evenings, including spaces on the opposite side of the street.
Copia, in the 1100 block of Washington Avenue, has a permit for their entire side of the block. Their permit also applies to Thursday-Saturday nights. For the record, Copia began blocking the street and valet parking during the “rush hour” when parking is not permitted on the street. Funny, we can’t park during the 4:30-5:30pm hour but they can take the lane for their own private use. Double standard deluxe.
What is interesting is the permits for both restaurants were issued on the same date: January 30, 2006. Coincidence?
The city’s Treasury office, which controls parking meters, said on Monday they have no policy on valet parking. Who has authority, Streets or Treasury?
What is the big deal you ask?
Other businesses are trying to become established on these blocks. Guests of residents also need places to park. Two restaurants that have parking lots available for their use should not be taking away parking spaces that could be used by the general public.
At 10pm tonight about six to eight spaces near LPG were empty because they’ve got them coned off. The block with Copia was completely empty except for the cones. It just doesn’t look good for the area to have empty spaces at 10pm on a Friday night.
The answer is obvious — give them the space in front of their own business and require any cars they park to go into private off-street lots. Anything more is unfair to adjacent businesses and detrimental to the overall health of the street.
– Steve
Great post, and kudos for the research you did to find this info!! I couldn’t agree more. LPG and Copia are great places, and great additions to Washington Ave, but I am very happy to see someone take a stand for the OTHER businesses around there. My only question is, what happens when these restuarants are taking up the spaces Monday-Wednesday, when their permits aren’t valid?
Thanks for another great piece, Steve.
There should be no such thing as free valet downtown. People should be on the streets. The fact that everyone valets for free connotes unsafe streets that are not viable for parking let alone walking. How does this promote life on downtown’s streets…it doesn’t, rather it shuts it down. Patrons see the entrance to the restaurant and the rest flies by through their car windows. Valet should be offered but at a certain premium to promote downtown walkers. The city should not enable restaurants to continue this in any way by making valet too easy or cheap.
Downtowner, if you’ve been to downtown Clayton in the last 20 years or so, you’ve probably noticed that many of the restaurants there offer complimentary valet parking. Does that connote unsafe streets, not viable for walking? Hardly.
Take the valet parking for what it is: an expression of luxury and welcomeness to the patron from the restaurant. I don’t think the government should have much say into what a restaurant should have to charge for their kind gesture. Plus, these downtown St. Louis establishments should be able to compete on equal footing with the downtown Clayton establishments in offering such amenities as valet parking.
Forcing people out for a luxurious night to walk is not going to engender any goodwill. There will be plenty of people on the sidewalks who don’t use valet. Patrons of places like Flannery’s, Dubliners, Koi, Gelateria, and most of the people who go to Copia and LPG. Don’t worry so much.
[REPLY – Comparing Clayton to downtown St. Louis isn’t quite fair because Clayton has not had to overcome the perception of crime that downtown has.
I personally want people to walk but I also see the need for valet service. The question is not to offer valet but how much space is required to do so. Currently they are taking far more room than necessary and then using public spaces rather than the private lots they have reserved. – SLP]
Dubliners? What is this Dubliners? Did someone just name a Washington Ave. establishment after Joyce?
Dubliners is the name of a soon-to-be-opened bar on WashAve. Hopefully it will be a bit more sedate than Flannery’s. I am guessing the name is a reference to Joyce’s collection of short stories.
Wow, it’s been too long since I’ve been on Washington, then. Given that it’s a little more low-key than Flannery’s, a cool little Irish pub would be great. Now if only Dooley’s would stay open later…
Anyone opening a hotel soon on washington? That seems like a great connection having a hotel so close to such great nightlife. I would stay there if it were cool botiqueish and I could get in for $150 a night with some internet deal.
I realize that this has nothing to do with the original comments regarding valet parking. I completely agree with Steve and the other buisness should be allowed to use the parking in front of their locations for themselves. No business should have a revolving permit to block off parking spaces unless its for a single event that happens once every 6 months max.
If these downtown eateries want to provide valet parking, fine. But there should be an ordinance stating that they have to buy spaces from a nearby parking garage and park the cars there.
As you say Steve, public parking spaces should not be limited to benefit a single business.
This shouldn’t be too hard of an ordinance to pass.
Denver struggled with this over the past decade, as LoDo became a desirable place for restaurants and lofts, much like Washington and the surronding areas are now becoming.
Here are a few links to their solutions:
http://www.denvergov.org/admin/template3/forms/Valet%20Parking%20Services%20090303.pdf
http://www.denvergov.org/Parking_Management/template311681.asp
http://www.downtowndenver.com/transportation/access_parking.htm
Basically, I agree that no business should have special or exclusive access to on-street parking spaces, especially when there are no rules governing if or how permits are to be issued!
Jim wrote:
Basically, I agree that no business should have special or exclusive access to on-street parking spaces, especially when there are no rules governing if or how permits are to be issued!
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Effectively, certain businesses do abuse the street spaces in another way, albeit indirectly, through their employees who park at meters for 8 or more hours at a stretch.
How can they do this, you say? Aren’t there posted two-hour limits? Why yes, but our vaunted parking czar, Larry Williams, chooses not to enforce the limit, leaving retail businesses (such as my defunct art gallery on 10th Street) to fend for themselves while employees of the Renaissance hotel, SBC, and yes, even the Downtown Partnership feed the meter all day.
Interesting . . . the city stands to make much-needed money from enforcement, yet chooses not to. It doesn’t take writing too many parking tickets before an on-the-street parking-enforcement employee more than “earns their keep”!
Trust me, I’m no fan of the “parking nazis”, but they serve an important role in urban life. They insure that parking turnover occurs where needed, and they make sure everyone plays by the same rules and and are treated equally.
To beat a dead horse, Denver enforces until 10 p.m. in areas of high demand (LoDo), generating both revenues and turning over on-street spaces. This results in ±700,000 tickets being issued annually. I have no idea what sort of volume that St. Louis does, but it would be an obvious revenue source for a city facing a severe budget deficit!