Ad Check: Metzger on Snider Plaza Parking
University Park City Council candidate Steve Metzger was at tonight’s City Council meeting. I had a few minutes to ask him about the most recent advertisement sent out by the University Park Citizens for Better Government (after the jump), which said that Metzger has a plan for the snarled traffic and deficient parking in Snider Plaza.
I asked Metzger to tell me what his specific ideas were for the parking problems in Snider Plaza. He wants to find a solution to parking woes “independently of the Chase Bank site.” He suggested adjusting Daniel Avenue on the south end of the plaza, and reconfiguring the parking layout of Snider Plaza, too.
One of Metzger’s main concerns is pedestrian safety in Snider Plaza. He’d consider prohibiting cell phones in high traffic areas, such as Snider Plaza. “If you’ve got one hand on your cell phone, you’re not concentrating on driving,” he said.
I really appreciate Mr. Metzger’s concern for pedestrians in Snider Plaza and his desire to find solutions to the parking deficit there. However, the idea to make people drop their cell phones is totally off the mark. The people creating danger for pedestrians are the ones barreling through the Plaza, both hands on the wheel like Nascar drivers vying for the only remaining parking space. As for “adjusting Daniel Avenue” to fix the parking deficit, I’m still scratching my head on that one. Our committee of 14 citizens supported by all the city department heads plus a 4 member team of parking experts from the world’s leading parking authority Carl Walker and Associates studied parking in Snider Plaza in depth for 2 years. “Adjusting Daniel Avenue” never once came up. We also found that “reconfiguring the parking layout of Snider Plaza” would net us all of about 6 new parking spaces. People please, this is not the time to elect someone who will be learning on the job.
If we start “prohibiting cell phones in high traffic areas” I suspect what we’ll end up with is one more distraction – looking for signs indicating that you are entering one of these prohibition areas, instead of looking where you are driving. At least the school zones are already well known locations calling for a driving adjustment. But letting any old stretch of road (or parking lot) be a zone where cell phones are probibited sounds like another nanny state regulation with plenty of unintended consequences.
Well well, now that the Dallas Morning News reports that Steve Metzger’s campaign is backed by Albert Huddleston, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what he means by “adjusting Daniel Avenue” to fix the parking in Snider Plaza. Mr. Metzger, Ben Franklin said it best, “He that lieth down with dogs, shall rise up with fleas.”
Why doesn’t Snider Plaza get valets for free like the Village – PROBLEM SOLVED……………