Residents of 7th Street are right to be concerned about the city of Durango Planning Department’s plan to put “back-in” diagonal parking on their street (Herald, May 29). Anyone who lives in the avenues between College and 12th streets should be concerned.
The theory is that by making the street more congested, it slows down traffic. Devin King, the city’s Multimodal manager, at every Next Step meeting, references studies that already prove that. The city’s own study on the street shows that people follow the speed limit.
This is a residential community where children live and play and you are going to have dozens of cars and trucks backing into their parking places? Think about it.
They are doing this test for two reasons. First, they have grant money that they can’t wait to spend. Secondly, with their plan to turn Durango’s Main Avenue into a semi-pedestrian mall, they are going to need the parking. The Next Step plan eliminates 40 parking places and makes it impossible to step out of your car on the driver’s side and not be standing in the lane of traffic. It is not safe and people won’t park there.
Back-in diagonal parking in the neighborhoods is really about turning the neighborhoods into a city parking lot. The new hotels at the corner of 5th Street and Second Avenue were approved without adequate parking for guests. The Public Defenders Office and their clients are moving downtown. Where will they park?
This will dramatically change downtown neighborhoods.
Jackson Clark
Durango
