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We’re
spoiled. Plain and simple.
After having parked my
vehicle downtown for more that
450 days…I want to put this
to rest once and for all.
Admittedly,
few of us actually get our daily
quota of exercise right? And
besides at our homes…where is
it that we can park right outside
the door of our destination?
The factory? The mall?
The columns? Wal-mart?
Yeah, right.
Then
why is it that our brains are
programmed that we ought to
be able to park right outside
our destination/place of business
when we’re downtown? Because
we’re spoiled. Jackson
is a city kind to its parkers.
No fees, and convenience
abounds. We don’t even
have to pay to park at Oman
Arena events!
In
a nutshell, here’s how parking
works downtown. Currently
from Monday through Friday there’s
free one hour parking. Why?
This process creates a
sort of revolving-door of vacant
spaces if you will. Because
if it weren’t limited to one
hour and monitored by the police
department…then we’d park our
cars and leave them there all
day. Business owners and residence
would monopolize spaces making
it even more annoying for the
public to visit downtown.
Don’t
worry…I’ve paid my share of
$5 parking tickets. But
I’ve found a really easy way
to avoid future tickets. Public
Parking lots. And the
best part? There’s a parking
lot less
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than
two blocks from nearly every
possible destination downtown!
There are actually four of them.
One next to JEA on College
Street, one across the street
from Dixie Castle at the corner
of Church and Baltimore, one
across from the Carnegie at
the corner of College and Church
and one at the corner of Highland
and Lafayette.
It’s
really rather simple. Each
morning I park at the JEA lot
and walk through the alley (a
very well-lit, benevolent alley
by the way) between College
and Lafayette Street which puts
me right near the front door
of my art gallery. No
worries about having to run
out every hour to move my car
(known amongst the locals as
the “one-hour shuffle”), AND
I get the exercise of walking
two blocks each day. In
fact, I’ve found that parking
at one of these public lots
and walking across town is easier
than circling the block for
a spot regardless what my destination
is.
So
the next time you visit downtown…park
at one of the public lots and
walk. Your heart will
thank you later.
Dickson
is the owner of The Dickson
Gallery of Fine Art at 118 E
Lafayette Street. She may be
contacted by email at rachel@dicksongallery.com
or by phone at 423-9708.
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