New garage full before it even opensBy Ron Menchaca (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Monday, August 11, 2008
A new eight-level garage that's supposed to ease the parking shortage in the Medical University of South Carolina complex won't be finished when thousands of students and faculty descend on the downtown Charleston campus next week for the beginning of the fall semester. Parking officials at MUSC expect the situation to temporarily worsen beginning Aug. 18 because the 1,500-space garage is still a couple of months from completion. The semester hasn't even started, and already hospital workers and students have trouble finding spaces. On Thursday, Patrick Nasarre steered his red sedan up and down the rows of cars in the Hagood Avenue parking lot, scanning for an open space. No luck. The lot was full. Though Nesarre, a researcher at the Hollings Cancer Center, received a temporary pass to park in another lot for the day, his experience illustrates the challenge hospital officials face as they try to accommodate more vehicles than they have parking spaces to offer. On a typical day, some 11,000 faculty and staff, 2,500 students and thousands of patients converge on the hospital complex, though not all of them drive. When the new garage opens, the hospital will have a total of about 9,500 spaces. Melinda Anderson, the hospital's parking administrator, said she's come up about 200 spaces short most weekdays this summer. She expects that deficit to double to about 400 spaces until the garage comes online. Manhattan Construction Company is the lead firm on the $40 million garage project, which began in March 2007. The construction contract calls for completion by Oct. 24. Still, demand for parking at the complex is so high that every space in the new garage will already be spoken for from the moment the garage opens. The university is doling out the spaces to employees based on their date of hire. Anderson doesn't know if the pending parking crunch will exacerbate problems with parking cheaters. A recent Watchdog investigation found widespread parking abuses downtown, particularly misuse of handicapped parking placards on streets in and around the hospital complex. Anderson suspects the parking abuses will continue despite the new garage. "I'm not so sure because free parking is such a motivator," she said. The new garage is expected to cause a domino-effect throughout the entire parking system that will free existing spaces around campus when those users are reassigned to the new garage. So even those who don't win a spot in the new garage may still benefit indirectly by picking up a space from someone who did get in. Parking cheaters, who sometimes complain that the lack of parking leaves them no choice but to try to beat the system, won't have much excuse, Anderson said. "When we have our new facility, that argument will no longer carry any weight," she said. Anderson said the garage was supposed to open in conjunction with the university's new hospital, Ashley Tower, which was completed in January. In fact, that's the justification MUSC gave when it applied to the state Commission on Higher Education for permission to build the garage. "The garage will absorb the increased staff and visitor parking demand resulting form the construction" of the new hospital and related projects, according to commission records. But the new hospital opened early and the garage was not ready, said Maggie Diebolt, a hospital public information specialist. Anderson said she tried everything to get the garage open before next week, short of grabbing a hammer and joining the work crews. The hospital looked into having a portion of the garage open early, but that raised safety concerns, she said. "I raised all the possibilities. They just couldn't do it. I feel we did everything possible." The university plans to temporarily lease additional parking near the Hagood lot and at the S.C. Aquarium garage to help bridge the gap. Hospital officials also plan to offer new parking incentives to encourage employees to car pool. Nasarre, who is French, lived in Paris before coming to work at the hospital. He said the parking situation is far worse in Paris, where it wasn't unusual to search for an hour and still not find a space. "I hear people complain about the parking here, but it's really OK for me. At least I can park. " Reach Ron Menchaca at rmenchaca@postandcourier.com or 937-5724. |
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Comments
This article has 15 comment(s)
Posted by susansweetbaby on August 11, 2008 at 4 a.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Posted by LadyTarHeel on August 11, 2008 at 7:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
wpc: I do the same thing. Students get a flat rate and we don't have to pay monthly, but the headache of finding a parking spot and driving in traffic defeats the purpose. I would much rather take the bus and take a nap instead of dealing with traffic and parking.
Posted by Reader on August 11, 2008 at 7:45 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The article said, "The university is doling out the spaces to employees based on their date of hire."
I wonder whether instead something like the high-density traffic lane idea could have been used here. For example, limit parking in the garage from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m. those those people with at least two people in the cars.
When parking spaces are assigned, most facilities overbook since they realize that not all of the parkers will actually be there at the same time. If so, perhaps the hospital could limit parking to those people with assigned spaces OR those carrying four people in their cars.
Just a thought.
Posted by Reader on August 11, 2008 at 7:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I hit "Post" too soon. One other thought: Perhaps the City of Charleston could use the same incentives and give a dollar off the cost of parking in parking decks to those people who have more than a certain number of people in their cars when leaving a parking deck.
Posted by mlm on August 11, 2008 at 8:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is a parking deck! I thought this was part of the College of Dental Medicine. What a waste! This is prime real estate we should be using for classrooms, clinics, offices and even residences when possible. No, we instead use this premiere historic location on natural land to store automobiles. Whatever happened to the concept of using marginal land (like the filled-land on Courtenay and Hagood) for this kind of purpose? What a waste!
This is an example of the city's failure to properly integrate and balance the needs of people and important public institutions on the peninsula. At this rate we might as well just go ahead and turn everything into a parking facility from the Battery to Mt. Pleasant St.
Again, what a perfect waste! Only the College of Charleston manages to make a bigger mess of what could have been an opportunity to more sensitively knit itself back into the surrounding neighborhoods.
Posted by a_set_love on August 11, 2008 at 8:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Perhaps MUSC needs to consider building any new Hospitals above Northwoods, in the City of North Charleston, Summerville, Goose Creek region, where the people live.
I've heard a rumor that people don't pay to park up there, except at the Collisiem.
Is Mr. Joesph P. Riley Jr., mayor of the City of Charleston, pulling strings in Columbia to have all the buildings stuffed in downtown charleston?
I wonder................
Posted by FromColaToChuck on August 11, 2008 at 9:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Hey mlm, slow down. The picture for the article is misleading. You are correct that the area in the picture is the new College of Dental Medicine facility and it is going to be state of the art and a huge resource for that college. The location is on bee just past Ashley.
The garage is actually further down at Bee and Courtenay (across from the gym), much more applicable area for storing vehicles. Also, I'm pretty certain there is a garage with an energy facility of some sort adjacent to it and sharing a wall.
It's a bum deal that this sort of thing needs to be built here on the peninsula, but that is the price we pay for having these medical facilities.
I encourage you to stroll around the campus (not in the heat, it's brutal) and see what all is going on. The new ART is second to none and I expect the Dental building to be first class, you can get a rendered view of it in the library on campus I believe.
And as for parking, the bus system seems to working well and should be expanding, save gas and a headache, catch a ride!
Posted by Mon_Kie on August 11, 2008 at 9:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"Nasarre, who is French, lived in Paris before
coming to work at the hospital.
He said the parking situation is far worse in Paris,
where it wasn't unusual to search for an hour and still not find a space. "I hear people complain about the parking here, but it's really OK for me. At least I can park."
Paris, unlike Charleston has a first rate Metro system that makes it very convenient to catch a train, and gets you to your destination swiftly.
The biggest complaint about the Carta Express bus is when you have an emergency or get to leave work early you are out of luck.
However...... it's a start.
Posted by Neponset on August 11, 2008 at 10:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I have used the parking garages of Charleston for a long time, and one thing that I have noticed is that the first level has lots of “reserved” spots for the VIP folks and the rest of us need to go to the upper levels and hope there is a spot for us. I think “all” spots should be open to the first to show up and let the big dogs circle around like the rest of us.
Posted by mkhaynes on August 11, 2008 at 12:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Does MUSC offer park and ride for people from other spots on the peninsula (or in other areas)? I work at Newport News shipyard, which employs about 11k people. I pay $40 a month for a parking spot that's half a mile from my office. We have the same issues with the free parking offered to full time employees, you either have to show up an hour and a half early to get a spot, or you pay $5/day to park. The people who own the pay lots must make bank, because I'm sure they're full every day. Of course when we complain about having to hike to work, all the people who've been here for 25+ years talk about how much worse it used to be when there were about 20k people working here.
But some of the solutions might work - there are reserved spots for carpoolers, and there are park and ride vans running from almost everywhere in Hampton Roads to the shipyard. There's also a "Max" bus line that runs directly from one spot to another - HRTA just started that, and they run from various places directly to downtown Newport News or to Norfolk Navy and other places with high employee levels. Maybe the folks at MUSC need to take a look up here.
Posted by PalmettoDP on August 11, 2008 at 1:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'd rather deal with some temporary parking headaches than have the garage open before it's ready.
Posted by SC_Leigh on August 11, 2008 at 1:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
mlm, yes it would be great to build something like "classrooms, clinics, offices and even residences when possible." in this "prime real estate" location, but here is a question, WHERE ARE THOSE PEOPLE VISITING THE "classrooms, clinics, offices and even residences" GOING TO PARK?. As long as there are new buildings, for whatever reason, there is going to have to be parking provided or people are going to park illegally. Until the City provides a transportation system that makes sense, parking is going to be an issue.
Posted by mlm on August 11, 2008 at 2:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
We are living in the past if we think that urban density and available parking go hand in glove. Maybe we should hope for gas to go to $8 per gallon and then we will be forced to look at creating viable transportation alternatives. The comment about the Paris metro is correct. Only a fool would attempt to drive and park in Paris. But that doesn't keep Paris from being a very livable, workable and enjoyable city.
Until the policy makers here with free parking and reserved spaces 100 yards from their offices are forced to pay through the nose like the rest of us, the policy makers will continue to be the ones to decide how to spend public resources on such projects as creating more free, or at least convenient, parking spaces for themselves.
We have created this problem by making auto traffic to and from downtown the only dependable means of transportation. At least MUSC is attempting to address the issue within their scope by using some park and ride alternatives. This points out a major failure by city leaders when everything from healthcare, jobs and affordable housing are being held hostage to parking requirements. We had 100,000 people living downtown in 1944 and there was no gas to be had. We have 33,000 people living in the same location today and we complain that we have no parking. So which is it, people or cars?
Posted by DawnM on August 11, 2008 at 4:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm a student at MUSC, and the parking never ceases to piss me off. They shouldn't have even opened the Ashley River Tower until the parking garage was finished.
Posted by JustJennings on August 11, 2008 at 7:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The root of the whole problem is the poor state of mass transit in this country. If it worked better, more people would use it. As it is, you get on a bus and have to walk a good distance because the sign on it was wrong, and it is not even the route posted. Two other gentlemen and I waited for a bus for a long period of time on Vendue Range as the sign posted there clearly stated that that route ran until 10:30 PM. It turns out that route quit running at 6:00 PM for the last 5 years, but the sign is left up! The 6:00 bus didn't even show up that day! If three people were waiting on that one day, how many thousands have been inconvenienced over the last 5 years? It was removed after I reported it, but 5 years to late. Do you think the CARTA people even offered me a free day's bus pass for my inconvenience? OF COURSE NOT! They are government employees, so they are never held accountable. It doesn't matter if they waste your time!