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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Lack of theatre parking
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Brian Michael Weidemann
Expert cat molester
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Posts: 944
From: Costa Mesa, CA United States
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted 03-13-2004 01:38 AM
The Irvine Spectrum complex is a huge outdoor mall, basically, with plenty of restaurant/bars of the Yard House/Dave & Busters type. Since the Edwards 21 opened up in 1995, I can remember the parking situation there has always been bad, Friday/Saturday nights. And not just bad, but putrid, rotten, stinky, and rank.
It's all open lot surrounding most of the complex, extending up to the two freeways which cross. Over the years, they kept adding on to the Spectrum, building over existing lot. There's nowhere to build more parking lot, so the parking got less as the reasons to be there got more. They're only NOW building a parking structure, of two eventually to be built. But see, they sectioned off the part of the current lot to do it, making parking even worse.
As for employees, everyone in the Spectrum must park in a specially designated section, in the far corner of the lot, where the freeways cross, or (thankfully) in a newly designated off-site lot. Sure there are free-shuttle services, but it's mostly quicker just to foot it and wait at the crosswalks. On weekends, nobody can park in the corner lot (which pointlessly remains empty); we ALL must stuff ourselves in the off-site one.
If employees' vehicles are caught in the main, public parking area (there are records kept and "Security" on watch!), we'll get towed after two notices, even during the week, when most of the lot is empty ALL DAY!
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Carl Martin
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1424
From: Oakland, CA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 03-13-2004 02:04 AM
i sure am glad i work in a downtown theater. we have no lot of our own, but there are 2 within a block's radius. i ride a bike, but there are buses and trains as well. when someone calls for directions, i tell them to get on the train, get off downtown, and walk 2 blocks. if they insist on driving , i usually have to find someone who knows what the highways around here are called.
i can't imagine being in some sprawled-out suburb, slave to an automobile. yes, slave, as invention truly is the mother of necessity. many necessities, in fact, as the parking-lot woes described above illustrate.
carl
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Pete Naples
Phenomenal Film Handler
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Posts: 1565
From: Dunfermline, Scotland
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted 03-13-2004 03:27 AM
It's a bit of a nightmare in central Edinburgh or Glasgow, I've only got one service that has any parking to speak of. The rest is a case of stop car as close as you can, or dare (parking attendants / traffic wardens are vicious!), unload, drive to nearest car park, find it's full, spend an hour driving round to find a space, park, then several hours later do it all again in reverse.
Lately I've taken to doing all central Edinburgh services starting on a monday, take car in on sunday night, unload, then go by bus or train in the morning, only taking the car in on th last day.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
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Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 03-13-2004 07:04 AM
Car parking was a big problem in both Exeter and York, and in York it's set to get bigger.
At Exeter we had a little car park with about five spaces. With a total seating capacity of around 500 between two screens, you can imagine the mieowing and hissing that generated! What made it worse was that shoppers tended to turn up at the crack of dawn, park up, bugger off and return late in the evening, without even having set foot in the cinema. The fire officer wouldn't let us put a barrier on the entrance because it was needed for fire engine access to other buildings via our car park.
In the end we had to introduce a system whereby genuine cinema customers were given a ticket to put in their windscreen when they booked their cinema seats, and get a firm of clamping Nazis in to terminate with extreme prejudice any vehicles found without one. It was great fun watching the serial offenders being clamped during the first few weeks of the new regime (by that point, word had got out that there was a free car park in the city centre). But boy did it create a lot of admin hassle just for the sake of five poxy parking spaces.
York has no car park whatsoever. To add insult to injury, the City Council (Lib Dem - what a surprise!) are about to massively hike the public car park charges, which are already almost at London levels, and extend the charging period from 6pm to 9pm. There's been an absolute outcry about this (some of it is probably still going on in the York Evening Press), and I fear that it will hit cinema attandance. It will have the effect of adding around £4 to the cost of coming in by car and seeing a film in the 6pm or 8pm slot. And to add insult to injury, the Park and Ride buses finish at 9. In their short-term milk-the-motorist money grabbing crusade (they know that they're going to be Council Tax capped, so they're looking to get money elsewhere) this council really are going to do huge damage to city centre traders: they seem to want a city whose sole evening occupants are binge-drinking teenage yobs who come in by public transport.
Darren (if you're reading this) - are you lot worried about this?
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