by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The City is offering some relief for the parking woes on Hendricks Avenue.
The on-street parking shortage on the Southbank corridor from Cedar Street to Landon Avenue has become even more pronounced since the City started work in February on a $7 million road resurfacing and widening project.
Parking has always been scarce in the area. Proprietors along Hendricks say it will soon become non-existent as soon as the City’s road graders set up shop in front of their doors. Earl Hunter, the manager at Orben’s Camera at the corner of Hendricks and Landon, expects them soon.
“They should be here in about a week,” said Hunter, pointing toward the City’s heavy equipment rumbling about a block north of his store. “Once they get here, the on-street parking is gone forever.”
The Hendricks makeover will replace the parking with bike lanes and wider sidewalks. The project will also bury utility lines and landscape the area. Hunter, like most of the business owners polled, is looking forward to the area’s new look. But he’s worried that the lost parking spaces will hurt his business.
As an answer to those concerns, the City recently opened up 40 public spaces next to Lasalle Street’s Swaim United Methodist Church, about one block west of Hendricks.
Swaim owns the lot and uses it for weekend services. The church is letting the City use the lot for public parking when its not needed for church functions.
In exchange, the City paid to resurface the lot and installed overhead lighting. The price tag for the work wasn’t available, but the cost will come out of the Hendricks project’s budget, said Public Works spokesperson Marci Cook.
The business owners are thankful to have the spaces available and some have even started parking there themselves. But there’s concern about what will happen when the City’s lease runs out. The City’s overhaul of the parking lot only bought the spaces for a year.
Cook said negotiations are already underway to extend public use of the lot. Several of the business owners had been told that the City is looking for other areas that could serve as public lots, but so far has found the pickings slim.
“There’s just not any open land around here,” said Hunter.
Managers like Hunter are most concerned about the impact of ongoing construction on their businesses. Hunter said he’s noticed less traffic coming through Hendricks since construction started and worries that commuters might start avoiding the area completely as construction drags on.
Originally scheduled to finish next June, the work has been extended by at least a year, Hunter was told by the City. The project deadline was pushed back by the surprise discovery of thousands of buried railroad ties standing in the way of utility work.
“I’ll be surprised if they get in done in two years,” said Hunter. “I remember when they were telling us it would be done for the Super Bowl.”
The demand for parking in the area peaks around lunchtime as several of San Marco’s most popular lunch spots are crammed into the block between LaSalle and Landon.
The clock doesn’t tick far past noon before La Nopalera and Panera overflow their parking lots. Many of the managers spend the hours from noon to 2 p.m. watching the business suit crowd park in front of their stores only to jaunt across Hendricks to the popular eateries.
Matt Dahlberg makes the run to La Nopalera about once every two weeks from his downtown office at The Stellar Group. He remarked about his good fortune Wednesday to find a spot right across Hendricks from the Mexican restaurant, but he said it’s not uncommon to have to park in the surrounding neighborhood.
The lack of parking can curb his appetite for La Nopalera. If he and his friends can’t get there early to find a spot, they often decide to go elsewhere, he said. He’s skeptical about losing the on-street spaces, but said he’d be willing to try the walk to the Swaim lot.
“I’ll just walk off my burrito,” he said.
Bluzette Carline, the owner of Trios Design Studio, said the restaurants are more blessing than curse. Although they eat up most of the parking, the restaurants also expose her studio to the crowds of people they bring in daily, she said.
But Carline doesn’t depend on walk-up business. Most of her visitors come by appointment. And she blacks out the lunchtime hours from her appointment book.
“It would be too hard for them to find parking,” she said.