Trouble with a capital "P".

• Author: Rundles, Jeff
• Position: Rundles Wrap-up - Column

TROUBLE, OH WE GOT TROUBLE. RIGHT HERE IN RIVER CITY! With a capital "T" that rhymes with "P," and that stands for ... parking.

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Now, of course, this isn't a new issue. Denver lore has it that George Wallace founded the Denver Technological Center more than 40 years ago because he had a parking problem with his Bentley in downtown Denver. I work in the DTC area and thank Mr. Wallace regularly for the acres of free and convenient parking I still enjoy to this day.

It's just that I have other problems with acres of free parking, things like urban sprawl, which is precipitated, in large part, by parking. Or the lack thereof. Or rather the lack of adequate resources, or a willingness to pay for it.

I am inundated with parking issues every day.

Just recently some friends and I were discussing where we should go out to dinner, and nearly everyone involved rejected the Cherry Creek North area because of the new parking kiosk pay system that must be boosting the Denver city revenues by 5 percent per year alone. And do I have to mention what a hassle it is to park anywhere near Old South Gaylord, or 32nd and Lowell, or, well, you get the idea.

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Right in my own neighborhood we have to have resident parking stickers or our streets would be filled with parked cars whose owners found inadequate or too-expensive parking options on the campus of the University of Denver.

And, of course, there's the aforementioned Downtown Denver, or as I like to call it, Parking Hell. Too few spaces, too small spaces, and an insidious system of supply and demand that quite frequently crosses the line into privateering.

If you think back three years ago to the last mayoral election, our current chief executive, John Hickenlooper, made his bones primarily by cleverly tweaking the growing parking meter problem--more meters, more expensive meter rates, and longer metered times--established by the previous administration. Sure, some rates came down, and times were adjusted, but not enough. Not nearly enough. In the Golden Triangle, for instance, people regularly feed the meters--which is illegal, by the way--just so they can finish dinner. And there are more meters in more places all the time.

For restaurants and shops, the issue is clearly a problem. At some point patrons will tire of the parking squeeze, and then they'll decide to eat and shop elsewhere.

But the issue is broader than shopping and dining. A recent parking survey...