Re: Boycott new metered parking on the Northshore:

First off, having to pay money makes high school and college students irate to begin with. I can't speak for career professionals so I'll leave them out of this.

Having to pay for anything that seems like it should be free is a drag. A public park you have to pay for doesn't make sense.

Sure, the city doesn't have admission booths situated around these places (Coolidge, Renaissance, Ross's Landing, etc.) but the general visitor will have to pay some city fee somewhere to get to their destination.

The evergreen parks and recreation areas of downtown Chattanooga are hardly gifts. You have to pay to enter an exhibit at the Hunter, take your kids to the Discovery Museum and before getting to these places you have to pay to park. An extremist will ask how much longer before the Walnut Street Bridge becomes the world's first pedestrian toll bridge.

A positive effect of these parking meters may be that the troubled teens and faux/pseudo gangs of Chattanooga will stay away from the parks. I'm sure they have some elements of anti-establishment and will bite their thumbs at the thought of paying to well, hangout. It was always a little troubling going to Coolidge park with my friends and walking past a row of 20-or-so import cars and "crotch-rockets" while the drivers look at you as if to say, "You want to be me…" Right. In brief, I think parking meters will keep away the 'bad crowd' that has caused issues in the past for the area.

My thoughts on this are that the parking meters should stay up. But only until the city breaks even in their investment. Recoup the loss of building the parking lots/meters and find a more useful, less controversial initiative to allocate money to. Raise taxes on cigarettes (generally less physically active) before you charge for parking at a public park where there will be people, Chattanoogans, enjoying and making the most of your city.

Matt Davis
themattdavis@gmail.com

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I can almost see having the parking meters on the street, but to make you pay to park at a public park? I have to agree with Mr. Davis.

Republic Parking alone downtown is making a pretty penny - for one hour of parking $2 in some spots, but a flat $5 in others. It's ridiculous. I have heard on many occasions visitors to our great city visiting our downtown attractions complaining about the price of parking in a public lot. Our tourism will surely suffer for this inconvenient and uninviting violation of the wallet.

I think there should be more talks on this parking thing. I know my family and I HAD enjoyed many weekends walking in Coolidge Park and Walnut Street Bridge. We will have to really reconsider our family outings this year.

Alecia O'Neal
Chattanooga

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While I agree with some of what Mr. Davis says, especially this,

A positive effect of these parking meters may be that the troubled teens and faux/pseudo gangs of Chattanooga will stay away from the parks. I'm sure they have some elements of anti-establishment and will bite their thumbs at the thought of paying to well, hangout.

I, however, do not agree with his generalization of the import car guys and my fellow "crotch rocket" riders.
If you ever took the time to approach any of these groups you would generally find people who yes are proud of their vehicles but are more then happy to let you look at them, show you certain things about how their vehicles are customized and even give you pointers on all aspects of vehicle customization.

I'd like to further more point out that the "crotch rocket" riders are just like most other bikers and get a bad rep just cause of an image they have.

However, all the prom kids that ask to get their picture taken near our bikes seem to like us, along with parents of young potential riders asking about safety gear, or the older couples who have always wanted to get into riding approach my fellow riders and ask for advice on how to get into the sport of motorcycle riding, were to obtain beginners information, etc.

I won't even mention the tons of good fellowship that is created when a bunch of "Cruiser Guys/Gals" get mixed in with the "Crotch Rockets"...oh, yes, let's put an end to fun socializing.

Furthermore, you'd be surprised how many of those individuals among those groups are military, fire-rescue, EMS, and police personnel. I won't even go into the charities the bikers and "Blingers" support and donate their time to assist.

Toys for Tots sound familiar?

How about that place called St. Jude's Children Hospital?

Make your issues with the problem, Mr. Davis, but do not justify your point of view by trying to belittle a facet of society you are not apart of apparently.

I'm sure all the other "Rice Burner", "Crotch Rocket" and "Cruiser" groups would be more than glad to say more to you than I have about your obvious prejudices.
I'd hate to know that the editor of a college newspaper has such a narrow and clearly uneducated opinion about some of his fellow Chattanoogans.

Linc Bowen
lbowen33@yahoo.com

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Last week we parked downtown to meet our family to eat. Parking across from the Discovery Museum, I found that I was forced to pay $5 for a one-hour park, not $2. So much for hourly parking downtown.

I also pick up mail daily at the main post office where several parking meters do not work. With the parking police standing next to you as you put money into the meter viewing no responce from the meter, she's writting a ticket. Her response, "Turn it in. Here's your ticket."

Beautiful, just beautiful. Welcome to Chattanooga from your local goodwill representative.

Chuck Mehan
East Ridge
cbm2006@comcast.net