Note here that changes were made to put the kibosh on the use of parking by workers. So, parking isn’t for workers unless they pay? It’s important to nickel and dime the people that work downtown and service the upscale shoppers the current vision seems to be focused on only if you aren’t one of those workers. But also keep in mind that there really aren’t any buses early in the morning or very late at night for workers, or anyone else, especially on the weekends.

Further, there is always the question of where the people currently using the parking, that are being designed out of the target market, will go. Sure, it’s nice to construct this as a new reason to build parking garages. There’s plenty of parking in Olympia, really. There’s parking lots all over the place, but it’s conditions of use that will make downtown more and more unfriendly.

Just how unfriendly to people should a downtown be? If downtown is to be any sort of commons, it must be available to everyone. Progress should be in making downtowns more friendly, not just into a high price commercial luxury zone.

I  especially like the last  paragraph. It reminds me that it will be cheaper to go to the large concrete pad on the Westside that recently kicked out Olive's East and the Thai Garden than it will be to go downtown.

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