I can’t believe all this talk about a lack of parking in downtown Everett and who is responsible for it. This is getting a little old. First of all, I am not in favor of going ahead with a new courthouse that has more than doubled in price in two years all before a hole is even dug.
This letter is about all the finger-pointing on who is responsible to fix the problem and how much parking is needed for each building in the downtown core. The Everett City Council seems real upset that the county is digging a big hole where a parking lot is to be built for a new building. Does Snohomish County have to replace the parking spots or not? Several city council members are also wondering if on-street parking will also be taken away.
This very same city council let a developer take away parking and close a street, including on-street parking, to store building materials for more than years. This was for Library Place located on California Street, between Rucker and Hoyt avenues. Who did this hurt? Several small businesses and the Elks Lodge that was trying to get tenants into their new housing units were hurt.
Another developer decided to save money on their excavation of a new housing unit on Grand Avenue. Rather than shoring up the edge of the site, the city allowed this developer to close down Grand between Hewitt Avenue and Wall Street for almost two years. The street was taken out to save on shoring costs. Who was hurt? Well, several small businesses along Grand who had trouble getting customers to their door as well as deliveries to keep their businesses going.
Let’s look at present day. This same city council sold off a parking lot for parking police cars and let a developer dig a big hole to build a hotel in its place. The city isn’t replacing those parking spaces yet they seem concerned about the county doing the same. In fact they don’t provide enough parking spaces for all the employees that work in the Wall Street building, police headquarters and the brand new municipal courthouse. Oh, by the way, they allowed the developer to close down yet another street in the downtown core for over a year. This is Wall Street between Colby and Wetmore avenues and, yes, all the on-street parking was also gone.
This is the same city council that claims there are not enough parking spots in the downtown core but several years ago came up with a parking study that claimed there were more than 10,000 parking spaces in the downtown core. This is when they wanted to build what’s now called Xfinity Arena.
I am sorry there aren’t enough parking spots for the existing businesses and churches in our downtown. We are all having to live with it. This has been a problem that has been building for several years. It is time to stop the finger-pointing and stop wasting our money. Get to work and solve the problem.
Dave Hensen is an Everett resident.
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