Comments on: Old Y Lot: 2 More Years of Surface Parking?

By: Tom Whitaker

Tom Whitaker — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 17:04:43 +0000

It is written as "William" on John Allen's hand-drawn map and the original plat map of "Annarbour," both dated 1824. [link] Reportedly it was named after William S. Maynard. [link]

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 20:33:59 +0000

No, that’s the so-called “Michigan genitive.” We actually talked about that right here a couple years back. The Williams thing is much more specific and local in scope.

By: Steve Bean

Steve Bean — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 14:57:26 +0000

@18: For the same reason (cultural differences?) that gave us the Meijer/Meijer(‘)s, Kroger/Kroger(‘)s, Ford/Ford(‘)s, and similar discrepancies. Sears may have avoided it by actually including the “s”.

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 14:23:38 +0000

The William/Williams thing is a longstanding muddle, not only in Ann Arbor vernacular but in official documents. I swear there even used to be a street sign with Williams on it somewhere. I wonder why this is.

By: Eric Boyd

Eric Boyd — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 20:51:55 +0000

@16: Downtowns with sufficient parking for everyone who might want to come downtown to park in a surface lot quickly look like parking wastelands. Everything gets so spread out that the downtown loses its charm and people stop coming.

Compare downtown to Ann Arbor to downtown Lansing:

[link]

Lansing is overflowing with surface parking, destroying its walkability and its charm. As a result, Ann Arbor’s downtown is far more attractive, in large part because we lack the vast expanses of asphalt. For example, why does Miki’s (or whatever it’s called now) seem so far removed from “downtown”? It’s because there’s a large parking lot in between. Why does the area around the library seem dead? It’s because there are two large surface parking lots surrounding the library.

In effect, the reasonable desire to have a surface parking spot convenient to your destination for everyone who might want to go to an attractive destination destroys the charm of said destination if it actually exists. Anyone want to drive out to Best Buy and spend a charming summer night strolling the sidewalks from Big Lots to Joe’s Crab Shack to Meijers to Target? Plenty of free parking!

By: Becky

Becky — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 18:48:39 +0000

Maybe I’m the only one, but I MUCH prefer parking in the Old Y lot rather than the 4th and William structure. It’s so much faster to get in and out, and it feels much safer. I don’t mind Library Lane, but it’s usually less convenient for my destinations. I don’t really know how the rates compared, but I for one would be willing to pay a higher hourly rate to park in the Old Y lot.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 16:22:17 +0000

Seeing the Old Y lot empty yesterday during the President’s visit made it clear what a hole in the center of town it is. Filling that hole with cars does not make it less of a hole. Let’s go for people instead.

By: Jim Rees

Jim Rees — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 22:48:37 +0000

Re: “a little park for a little while.” For those who don’t get the reference, after the old A&P (more recently the Salvation Army store) at the northeast corner of Main and Ann was torn down, there was “a little park for a little while” on that site. It was supposed to be temporary but lasted 11 years, from 1988 to 1999. The situation was similar in some ways to the Y lot, except that back then parks were considered more important than parking.

By: Joel Goldberg

Joel Goldberg — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 13:13:01 +0000

Thanks (and apologies for the TLDR…). Since one might assume that the city could find suitable reasons to deny a special exception — even on a property that’s been serving as public parking — that hardly leaves Dahlmann in a strong negotiating position.

By: Dave Askins

Dave Askins — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 13:00:42 +0000

RE: [11] It was covered briefly in the article. “Dahlmann could not operate a parking facility himself, even if he charged nothing for people to park – without obtaining a special exception use from the city planning commission. Planning manager Wendy Rampson responded to an emailed query from The Chronicle with this explanation: “If there is a principal use of parking on the site – whether paid parking or free – it would require special exception use from the planning commission, unless it was owned or operated by an entity exempt from the zoning ordinance (e.g., the DDA).””