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The Uptown And Parking: What Happens When There's No Plan

Ok. A lot of people have been writing that they don't want to see surface parking at the lot next to the Fox Theater in the Uptown District. The tower Forest City Development was to build is going to be stalled in this economy for a good, long time. So we have a lot. Yuck.

But the reason we have that, and not an alternative plan beyond it, and a lot of "stuff" from staff is that we don't have an overall development plan and regulations specifically for the entire Uptown Area; regulations that could govern signage, sidewalk design, and transportation. We've allowed the area to just sort of grow with piecemeal development projects as opposed to a full, overall plan.

Don't blame me folks; I pushed for one long ago, but lost that battle too.

What to do about the lot? Well, we could have a party on it! Seriously. Why not have a good, old fashioned Saturday public potluck right out there on that land, just to show that people will actually walk to something rather than using their cars? Perhaps if we're successful the property may wind up being used for something like what happened to the "splashpad" near the Grand Lake Theater during the 1990s: it's now your friendly neighborhood
Grand Lake Farmer's Market.

No. I'm not suggesting a market there in the Uptown (Lord knows we have a ton of them), but the idea started as a form of squatting to protest the construction of a splashpad at that property. You know what? The strategy worked.

We would need an event permit to start; well, and raise a little money for that. Not a problem. After that, a group, a date, food, drinks, and people. Bingo.

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