Whitewater to try angle parking downtown
WHITEWATER — Whitewater will test angle parking downtown, giving shoppers about 15 more parking spots.
The city council Tuesday approved the spring test for Main Street and for Second Street between Center and Main streets.
The city now has about 62 parallel parking stalls in the area.
Because no lines separate the parallel stalls, much of that space is wasted, said Tami Brodnicki, director of Downtown Whitewater, which operates the city’s Main Street program.
“Angle parking is a great idea. I’d like to see us move forward (on this),” Brodnicki said before the council voted.
The change was approved by a 7-1 vote. Councilman Jim Stewart voted against it.
Council members voting in support were: President Marilyn Kienbaum; Vice President Maxwell Taylor; Craig Stauffer; Thomas “Kim” Hixson; Patrick Singer; and Roy Nosek.
Stewart, who is an at-large member of the council, said Main Street is the city’s main corridor and it should be kept open.
“People don’t want to deal with angle parking, having people pulling out in front of them,” Stewart said. “It’s a main throughway. Why clog it up? Let them (motorists) go through.”
Nosek said if the city doesn’t try it, it will never know if more parking stalls could be obtained.
If it doesn’t work, the city always can reinstate parallel parking, Nosek said.
The only cost would be a bucket of paint, he said.
Dec 19, 2007 at 6:11 p.m.
Suggest removal
Stupid! I live in Whitewater and this is such a stupid idea! This fall they put angle parking on Center St in front of Toppers Headquarters, which ruled out parking on both sides of the street, the problem is that the streets around here are too skinny for things like this--- near the post office this is a even bigger problem because of the traffic, I dont see how it would work on Main St, its just going to stop the flow of traffic with people trying to back out. The problem on Center with the stalls are that they're WAY too sninny- an average trucks wheels are on the outside of both lines, also coming to the stopsign nearby, it is nearly impossible to see if there are vehicles coming if others are parked there! C'mon city council! Think about it! You gotta be blind to see that this isnt gonna work! And its not just going to cost the city a bucket of paint to fix it when it doesnt work- we'll also have to pay the city workers for labor... Way to go Jim stewart for voting against it!
Before you post a comment, consider this:
Note: GazetteXtra.com does not condone or review every comment. Read more in our User Policy AgreementPost Comment
Commenting requires registration.