Prowling Park-Madison on foot

Having lunch at the new Cousin's restaurant in the Park-Madison complex (see "A 'hot' downtown restaurant") gave PT an opportunity to check out the status of the previously unfulfilled promises concerning the project reported earlier (see the links to previous entries at end of this post).

First, the good news: Dumpsters behind food establishments are now corralled behind enclosures and screened from view -- as they are supposed to be.

That's it. It's all downhill from there.

Finding a parking space for the lunch date was instructive.

First, the spaces in the parking lot adjacent to the deck carried a stern message that if you were there longer than 30 minutes, you were subject to being towed away.

Stern warning on 30-minute parking limit

Not exactly a pleasant thought, so PT navigated around the block and found a metered space on the north side of West Front Street. Well, sort of. The meter was out of service, which was discovered AFTER dropping a quarter. Not wanting to risk a ticket, I backed up to the space behind me and tried THAT meter. Success.

Crossing the street to the restaurant, I noticed that the ENTIRE length of the south side of the street -- alongside the actual Park-Madison development was parked solid from Madison to Park.

Looking west in front of Cousin's




Looking east in front of Cousin's

That included parking alongside a fire hydrant.

SUV parked at a hydrant

A closer look revealed there are no parking meters on this side of the street, no space striping, and no yellow no-parking curb marking for the fire hydrant. Though it is festooned with a chain and a padlock -- perhaps to tether your vehicle so it won't be taken?

When we mentioned our parking adventure to the restaurant host, we were informed that the County Police keep watch over the lot from inside the the parking deck and only take action when people abuse the privilege.

PT was puzzled. If one couldn't reasonably expect have lunch and get back to the car within 30 minutes, how would one know it was OK to take the chance? (In Fanwood, they handle this by having the cops go through the lot EVERY TWO HOURS and mark tires with chalk. If a car is there the next time the cop comes through and has a chalk mark, it gets a ticket. Fair and square.)

But the bigger question is WHY NO PARKING METERS? Part of the agreement with the UCIA and AST was that the city was to have meters in the off-street lot. Now we don't even have them on the street. What gives?

Leaving the restaurant after lunch, PT encountered a SERIOUS gap in the sidewalk -- three fingers deep -- turns out to be over 2". An accident waiting to happen? And who would be liable? The City? The developer?

Gap in sidewalk is more than 2 inches

Closer inspection revealed the fake-brick decorative 'pavers' are crumbling everywhere. And the project isn't even two years old!

Crumbling concrete and fake-brick

Let's not even go to the RECONSTRUCTION OF PARK AVENUE BETWEEN FRONT AND SECOND, or the MOVING OF THE STREET CLOCK, or the FINAL CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY or the PILOT MONIES.

As AST and the UCIA come before the Council again, will anyone be asking 'What gives?' Or offering TOUGH LOVE?

---

Previous Park-Madison posts --

• On PARKING (July 11, 2006)
• On UNRESOLVED ISSUES (October 10, 2006)
• On PILOTs -- Payments in Lieu of Taxes (October 11, 2006)
• Visuals - PHOTOS OF ISSUES (October 13, 2006)
• Background on UCIA chairperson CHARLOTTE DeFILIPPO (CountyWatchers, March 23, 2006)

-- Dan Damon

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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
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