Downtown Parking Woes

The Council is going to meet on an ongoing problem about parking in the Downtown Troy area. Street cleaning has become a problem with the cars that are parked there overnight. We all know it is a problem for the Residents who live in Downtown, many of these apartments do not have off-street parking, garages, or if they do, not enough room to accomodate all who live in the apts. as many have been broken down into multiple living spaces, OR the Tenants that live in them have mulitple cars. Troy was set up in the Horse and Buggy days and modern times have really made an impact on original plans for the City. Folks who lived in Troy in the middle to late 1800's, lived downtown and worked downtown and it was much easier to stable your Horse and or Buggy than it was to park a car or more. Vendors delivered goods to your homes or traveled the streets with their wares and you went out and purchased from them instead of having to leave you house to travel elsewhere.

We all know, it comes down to the basics, move your car for the cleaners or you have to suffer with dirty streets. Most if not all know the cars need to be moved as signs are posted and once you live there you know the drill. But there ARE occasions when it is purely an oversight of the rules or someone may be sick and not able to move their car, or lost track of what day it is or whatever the reason for an accidental leaving of your car there. People who do it purposely get no sympathy from this BLOGGER.

Resident Kevin Luddy has come up with an idea of using modern technology to notify Folks that their car was in the way of the cleaners. I believe the basics of this so far is an EXCELLENT idea, you GO Kevin. I do not though believe this should be the responsibility of the City though. We ALL know the next step will be lazy Folks who don't move their cars because the 'City' didn't notify them. The City already has through signage. This could be a very very good organized way of solving the problem. One person could take charge of registering each Resident whether by email or Twitter whichever technology that person possesses, and send out a 'reminder' of cleaning times. It is similar to all of the Cascade lists we all use to use via telephone. I think this will also foster great neighborhood relations which as we all know leads to less crime when we all know our neighbors and their habits.

Are there other Folks out there who have a similar idea that could be tossed out here to help solve the problem? No matter what the issue may be, when everyone cooperates, usually the problem goes away.

Hats off to Kevin!! He has put on the thinking cap to help solve this problem..

Please feel free to post your comments!

Billie-Jean Greene

Billie-Jean Greene has made an announcement of her intention to run for City Council. I applaud her effort! In the short time she has resided in Uptown/North Central, she has gone the extra mile to make it her home and work towards making it a better place for everyone here. Some people reside in an area and just live in a house. Others take a look around them and say, 'what can I do to make it better for me AND my Neighbors'? This is what Billie-Jean has done. Billie-Jean attends on a Monthly basis the North Central Neighborhood Assn. meetings and also is a founding member of the Uptown Initiative. What is the difference you may ask? Not a whole lot but the Neighborhood Assn. focuses more on changing and eliminating the problems in our area, has a larger membership and has our Community Police in attendance and usually has a Guest Speaker to address and answer problems we may need help in dealing with. The Uptown Initiative is focusing on giving Uptown/North Central a different appeal to people and counteracting the negative reputation it has gained, mainly due to the fact it has become a dumping ground for situations not wanted in other areas of the City. Seeing Billie Jean lives DIRECTLY in North Central this young lady is going to be giving it her best. She is a member of both organizations and puts her effort out into the Community! If you don't know who she is, then you just haven't been involved.

Billie-Jean , should she definitely run , no doubt will focus on our problems and do her best to improve our conditions. We have a great location here in the City of Troy, situated nicely on the Hudson and really need to reach our potential as a desirable place to live. We have some of the largest and most beautiful houses in the City, and some of the most run down. We need to focus on and maximize what we already have. I know what she would like to see for herself, she would like to see for us all. Let's keep an eye on her and cross our fingers she WILL run! I have not heard of whomever else may be throwing their hat into the ring, but Billie Jean has my support.