Sunday, April 02, 2000
Park downtown? Don't even think about it
BY CLIFF PEALE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Parking will be as scarce as a Milwaukee fan in downtown Cincinnati on Monday.
Only about 1,000 of the 30,000 downtown spaces are available to non-monthly parkers on a normal weekday, and with the city fully stricken with Reds mania, Opening Day will be anything but a normal day. Lot and garage operators say they expect every space south of Sixth Street to fill before the Findlay Market parade starts at 10 a.m.
“There's not a whole lot available, and the few available parking spaces are going to fill up early, I think,” says John Schneider, transportation adviser at Downtown Cincinnati Inc., the downtown marketing group.
While there could be more spaces available in downtown's northern fringes or across the Ohio River in Northern Kentucky, parking experts are urging Reds fans and downtown workers to take the bus or car pool.
Downtown has lost nearly 1,000 spaces during the past year to riverfront construction and the demolished Parkade garage at Sixth and Race streets. Also, several thousands parkers will be displaced from the Cinergy Field garage because the team has reserved those spaces for Reds ticket holders.
That means the strained downtown market will only get tighter. With a sellout at Cinergy Field for the Ken Griffey Jr.-led Reds, that no doubt means clogged city streets and strained tempers.
Most parking operators in downtown's core said they will not raise daily rates for non-monthly parkers.
“I don't think that will happen in the garages,” Mr. Schneider says. “Whether it happens in some of the peripheral lots is anyone's guess.”
But at Broadway Commons on the northeastern fringe of downtown, Parking Company of America has raised its daily rate to $10 from $3.50 for Monday only, says Randall Pleasant, general manager.
About one-third of the 1,100 total spaces at Broadway Commons are not filled by monthly parkers and should be available on Monday, Mr. Pleasant says.
Central Parking System, which controls about half of the downtown spaces, including the Cinergy Field garage, says it will hold rates steady at core garages Monday. However, it will charge a special-event rate of between $5 and $10 for most of its surface parking lots, general manager Jeff Jones says.
It also will eliminate early bird rates at its garages, Mr. Jones says.
Chuck Cullen, the city's parking superintendent, says daily rates at the five city owned garages downtown will not change. Those daily maximum rates range from about $4 to a high of $15 at the Fountain Square and Fountain Square South garages.
Those five garages total about 2,100 spaces.
Across the river in Covington, the Kenton County garage has at least 700 spaces available. Its daily maximum rate is $6, Mr. Jones of Central Parking says.
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