The DDA parking data is back online, available and current and in real time. Two of the DDA lots are full at 10pm on a snowy Saturday night, and one is close to full:

First and Huron ………………………. 3
Ashley and 1st ………………………. 11
4th and Washington ………………………. 32

and just minutes away, there are acres of open space:

4th and William ………………………. 677

http://a2dda.org/parking.php

is not being updated in real time; the last time the data changed was 30 December 2008. I don’t know why.

Valet parking: Yes
Zipcars: 4
Better public transit: Make the U pay for it
10 additional parking spaces somewhere: We’re going to give you a really hard time
Affordable housing: We’re talking about talking about it

I find these priorities skewed, at best.

I take this reference to be the probes being done to figure out where utilities are. That seems to be a standard DDA sort of undertaking: find out where stuff is buried in advance of actual construction. Similar enterprise in the alley on the City Apartments block. My guess is that in both cases, even if neither project were never constructed, it will serve the purpose of giving definitive answers to where the stuff is buried as of a certain date. But if subsequent utility work is done, and the mapping isn’t updated, then you get mismatches … which will cause people to have to dig more holes in the future if they want to know for sure.

Also interesting that work on the parking structure has begun even though council hasn’t yet acted on the proposal. Must be DDA money. Maybe that points to the answer to Ed’s question.

Stew