City Beat: How bad is the parking situation in downtown Chattanooga?

In the last two weeks, I had the good fortune to attend two events at the Tivoli, in addition to going there for two other meetings, two at Songbirds, and one at the Walker Theatre. During that time, I also had lunch and dinner at several downtown restaurants, and had to do a little banking on a late Friday afternoon.

The farthest I had to walk after parking was two blocks. For three of my Tivoli visits, I actually found spots right in front of the lobby. Once was literally the closest spot available (I hated to give it up and considered just leaving my vehicle there) and the second was waaaaaaay across the street, so I had to hoof it an extra 15 yards.

On the fourth trip, I did spend about five minutes circling around the block until I finally pulled into a nearly empty pay lot two blocks away. Since it was sprinkling, I was a little miffed.

I bring this up because there have been several social media posts lamenting the “horrible” parking situation we suddenly find in downtown. I understand that we have become accustomed to parking right by the front door, and that is not so easy any more, but I never have to walk more than three blocks at the most.

Now, paying to park downtown is another story, and the number of horror stories seem to be increasing. I don’t mind paying a fair price, but some of the lots are starting to get into real money, and worse, the fines for late-pay or wrongful parking immediately increase to “never-going- downtown-again” prices.

The actual method for paying seems designed to confuse people, which it does, leading to more fines. People have a hard time figuring out which lots or spaces require you to input your tag number or your parking space number. And when are you supposed to leave the ticket on your dash?

I now use an app on my phone for parking, which is both good and bad. It’s great because I don’t have to keep a bunch of change in my vehicle and I can avoid the whole ticket-on-the-dash thing, but it is also tough on my bank account because it is so easy.

We lost another restaurant this week with the closing of Bluewater Grille, and some have wondered if the parking issue played a role. Maybe, but Main Street has taken a lot of business from the Riverfront area.

There is a good deal of momentum surrounding growth downtown, so it’d be a shame to see it curtailed.

Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.