Sunday, July 19, 2009

Buy More Buses

Has an idea to improve downtown parking
John Mycroft | Asheville Citizen-Times | July 19, 2009
The article, “Price of history/Grove Arcade comes under scrutiny for costs, management,” (AC-T, July 12), bemoans the lack of parking for the Grove Arcade. The answer is simple, cheap and immediate — buy some more buses, increase the frequency of current routes and add routes to unserved areas. Then more people could take the sane option of commuting by bus, leaving more than adequate parking for visitors.

MY RESPONSE:

When the writer says, "buy some more buses," he means have the government take more money from the taxpayers against their will to fund his own peculiar green pipe dreams. It is his type that prevents entreprenuers from building parking decks by zoning, regulation and harassment of city council. It is he who would stop the solution to parking.

The City of Asheville, which is required to have a balanced budget, started the year out with a five million dollar shortfall. If the writer would like to take up a collection from voluntary contributors to "buy some more buses," and then fund the operation and maintenance of them, I won't stop him.