City Newspaper Archives - 12/2006
LETTERS: A redundant garage
Published on Dec 06, 2006
The planned five-story parking garage on the west side of South Avenue between Manor Parkway and Linden Street is simply all wrong for the area and the era ("Garage Opener," November 8).
Given that 220 employees who park at the former Rochester Psychiatric Center will need to stop using that lot, all possible alternatives to a parking garage should be considered. Now is not the time to provide for more vehicles. Now is the time for Highland Hospital to take a different approach.
Predictions for the not-too-distant future include more expensive fuel and far fewer cars on the road. In City's April 5 interview, James Howard Kunstler said that by 2018 "the car is going to be a very diminished presence in our lives in a way that most ordinary people cannot imagine" and that "driving is going to be an enormous problem for us."
Others agree with Kunstler and foresee serious problems even sooner, less than 10 years from now. Whether sooner or later, the planned parking garage, having put its Abominable Snowman footprint on the land to destroy the neighborhood for many, and having affected the breathing of everyone, will then become redundant.
If those in charge at Highland Hospital cannot "think outside the box," they might ask their employees to suggest alternatives, or call in a consultant with foresight and flexible thinking.
Byrna Weir, Brighton
