Letter: Where do I park in Richland?

Richland has many venues/businesses under consideration and/or construction. Impressive? John Dam Plaza’s outdoor stage can seat 1000-plus. The “hole” to be replaced with a 30,000-square-foot Pike Place style market (number of vehicles?), 25,000 square feet of office space (number of vehicles?), 75-100 market-rate apartments over a 240-stall underground parking garage, and it goes on and on. Yea for progressive planning.

Questions loom! How many cars can park? Where? How close to their destination? The Federal Building is an option for many when the offices are closed. Please remember we citizens are older now. Businesses will and are putting up signs that say patron parking only, and who can blame them? Monitoring that will be time-consuming for them. Did anyone hear of Carmichael Middle School as an option for parking? Hello? We are talking about “downtown” Richland, aren’t we?

To further complicate matters, how about this? Narrow George Washington Way and eliminate the turn lane. What? And how, pray tell, will that work? Come on, man! It’s a nightmare to travel after 3:30 p.m. as is.

Great ideas and visions need thorough thinking from start to finish.

This story was originally published April 25, 2016 at 7:33 PM with the headline "Letter: Where do I park in Richland?."