[Peace-discuss] News-Gazette article Boardman ART Theater

[E. Wayne Johnson]

...dont know Robert well enough to catch the joke... oh, well.

Our family is a frequent user of the Urbana Free Library but we always 
go after the parking meters are off-line for the evening,
which suits our schedule anyway.

The worst part about the parking meters is that I seldom have enough 
coins, don't go downtown often enough to have a "pre-paid key",
and usually end up getting the $15.00 version of the tax for my 
foolishness in visiting the downtown of Urbana by car.
The fact that they police the meters frequently indicates the intent of 
the program is to get my $15 which angers me
into not going back to fall into the trap again.

I don't go to downtown Champaign businesses so I don't know the situation.
Well, that's not exactly true.  I did buy a Maytag washer and dryer from 
Robeson's
as recently as 1978 but I am told that Robeson's is no longer in business.
And I did have a breakfast meeting at MerryAnn's a few weeks ago but was 
careful to feed the meter
which I did with spiteful regret and some luck that I got back to it 
with quarters before "Lovely Rita" got there with her computer.

The baffling thing to me since I first saw an /enforced/ parking meter 
in 1972, at age 18, is that the sheeple who live
in these towns permit their governments to have parking meters.  (We had 
parking meters  in my hometown but nobody paid
any attention to them much so they took them out.)  I still find it 
incredible that the forefathers tossed
tea into Boston Harbour, yet this act of aggression against motorists is 
permitted.

Bob Illyes wrote:
> Robert wrote "a decent local government would seize the property by 
> eminent domain"" to which Wayne replied "Zowie!  Il Duce!  And here I 
> was thinking that Urbana was fascist..." I agree with Robert up to 
> that point, which I trust was a joke. The Art is a real asset to both 
> the community and to the downtown. I would have missed many good 
> movies over the years were the Art not operating. And for Marti I 
> point out that it was the Art that showed Martell and Patrick's 
> documentary after it was seized to keep it off of UPTV. Aaron spoke at 
> the showing to a packed theater.
>
> The actual problem seems to be that the Champaign City Council aims to 
> destroy businesses such as the Art by taxing them out of existence via 
> parking fees. This is a different kind of eminent domain that favors 
> the tastes of the nouveau-riche.
>
> When M2 went in, a city parking lot was GIVEN to the developers to 
> entice them to build. The city is now putting up a parking garage at 
> our expense to make up for lost parking. The city doesn't like to 
> raise property taxes, because these are higher for the wealthy, so it 
> has instead raised parking fees, but more relevantly has extended 
> weekday meter hours from 5 to 9:00 pm. This means that it costs an 
> extra $1.50 to go to the movie on weekday evenings, or to visit one of 
> the many restaurants.
>
> I believe this is a serious miscalculation, and can only damage what 
> is now a vibrant downtown community. Unlike Urbana, which charges to 
> park at the library, Champaign has so far shown the good sense to 
> continue having free library parking. The downtown, like the library, 
> should be for the whole community, not just for the high-end 
> restaurant-goers for whom the $1.50 tax per meal is irrelevant.
>
> I am a big fan of so-called in-fill development, and pleased to see M2 
> going in, but Champaign is shooting itself in the foot with the new 
> parking policies.
>
> Bob
>
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