Friday, May 7, 2010

I have a story in today's Current about the parking garage. I think it's got some facts that are not well known ... in any case, I don't think there ever will be a parking garage.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

thank goodness. do you have a link to the story gillian?

Gillian Swart said...

It does not appear to have been posted yet, sorry.

Anonymous said...

why will there never be a parking garage gillian?

Anonymous said...

read your article, seems that the MVRTA is pushing this whole thing, simply to have a place for people to park to use their bus. is assume that they are using taxpayer dollars for this project, which seems ridiculous considering newburyport is serviced by ONE bus....also you mentioned that they want the garage to promote use of the commuter rail? they why on earth are they building the garage downtown? none of this makes sense, and i pray the councilors don't rush us into this...it has the feel of the solar panel deal all over again.

Anonymous said...

It's posted now and it's pretty much what I've been arguing: no proven need, no money for a garage and the proposed location essentially gives Karp/Waterside West a parking garage.

I'm not sure how the Titcomb Street location was supposed to benefit the commuter rail station, either, but I've frequently found that the MVRTA talks out of it's butt.

- The Carrot

Ugh.

Anonymous said...

gillian, who runs the mvtra? is it taxpayer funded?

Gillian Swart said...

According to Wikipedia, "The MVRTA started operation in 1976, having been created under Chapter 161B of the Massachusetts General Laws. Since 1983, operation of the MVRTA has been subcontracted to First Transit, a subsidiary of the United Kingdom based FirstGroup" ... so I'd say it's probably taxpayer supported since I don't know how much revenue it generates.

Gillian Swart said...

Anonymous, backing down from my previous declaration, I guess it COULD happen, but the mayor seems to have put it on her back burner (at least that's the impression I get). Maybe Karp will fork over some dough, but if people can't walk from the NRA lots to downtown, who do they think is going to walk from Titcomb St.? And we're talking ONE bus here, ONE ... I'm amazed that anyone got federal and state money to fund this!