Good for the Wichita City Council and Sedgwick County Commission for addressing public concerns about the availability and accessibility of arena parking, even as the county awaits a mobility and parking study. “I think that time has arrived that we need to come together publicly and give the public an understanding that we’re working together and trying to solve parking issues,” County Commissioner Gwen Welshimer said at a joint city-county meeting Friday, drawing assent from Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer. Obviously, the other partner in this issue is private business, which should and will have a role in meeting parking needs. But potential arenagoers need to know their elected officials are listening to them, and not just to consultants, about where they’re expected to park.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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16 Comments
*Wave the magic wand*
Let there be posts that have the words White Elephant and Albatross in it!
I cast “Tarantallegra”!
THE BEST CHOICE WOULD BE TO CANCEL
this unwanted, unneeded white elephant albatross so-called downtown arena altogether before it costs the taxpayers really big money. $250,000,000.14 is too much money to waste on a project that has NO PURPOSE except to benefit a few professional ice hockey players and some non-existent professional basketball players.
Ladies and gentlemen: This downtown arena is NOT a substitute for a convention center or a acoustically correct concert hall … wrong configuration and wrong location AND WRONG DESIGN.
The best use for the site is for a super Wal-Mart or similar box retail store. Or for a gambling casino if one is approved by the voters … which I am opposed to.
Many of the groups involved in the downtown arena have now “earned” their pay … the politicians, the out of town promoters, the designers, real estate people, construction estimators. So now, call it good and cancel the project before really big money is wasted for construction. And for parking and infrastructure improvements sure to paid for by taxpayers. And for the later never ending operational costs of heat, air conditioning, glass breakage insurance, maintenance and of course “management costs.”
Take the total of nearly half a billion dollars and re-prioritize it for REAL NEEDS BY WICHITA AND SEDGWICK COUNTY TO MAKE THIS AREA A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE.
BUT RIGHT NOW …. STOP THIS ALBATROSS BEFORE ITS TOO LATE.
And County Commissioners DAVE UNRUH, TIM NORTON AND TOM WINTERS quit worrying about embarrassment if you step up with courage and call a halt to this downtown arena white elephant project.
Damn! I’m good!
The money would be better spent on dealing with the gang problem in Wichita. The arena will never be built.
COMMUNITY LEADERS: Some of you did the right thing by stepping up to oppose the gambling casino that will take millions of dollars OUT of the Sedgwick County economy and out of the taxpayers billfolds … not to mention losses by gamblers themselves.
Now, community leaders, step up to bat and knock this downtown arena project out of the park by stating the obvious …. the cost of this project is NOT JUSTIFIED on any basis for spending some 1/4 to 1/2 billion taxpayer dollars.
I know many business people, politicians, cab drivers, barbers, nurses, school teachers, police officers, fire men, in short, the citizenry of Sedgwick County who NOW DON’T WANT THIS EXPENSIVE NO-PURPOSE ALBATROSS.
As far as I can tell, there are less than 100 people who continue to want this white elephant. Probably 190,000 of the previous voters would now vote AGAINST it.
So lets join together and stop this idiotic project before it destroys the economy of Sedgwick County. Don’t worry about losing face — the future of Sedgwick County is too important.
After all the promoting, after all the voting, after all the planning, after all the allocating…oh yeah, lets address parking. Brilliant!
I have an idea for parking that I think non-walking Wichitans will accept: Each paying customer gets beamed up through the space-time continuum to magically land in their seats inside the arena. No actual walking required!
Oh, but scrap that– they wouldn’t want to pay the extra nickel in taxes for it.
As per representations made to the voters, build the $19,400,000 parking facility included in the vote. That is a part of the $184.526,000 narrowly approved by voters in 2004. NO CHANGES CAN BE CONSIDERED ACCORDING TO THE SEDGWICK COUNTY COMMISSION. HOLD THE COMMISSION TO THEIR REPRESENTATIONS.
“On-site parking/Optional Parking Garage —On-site parking provides a convenient fan amenity for aDowntown Arena. We have reduced the size of the parkingfacility budget from $39,500,000 to $19,400,000. We believe amix of parking garages (rather than one large 3,200 spacefacility) will be easier for downtown traffic, and also meets fanexpectations for necessary parking.”
Maybe they can figure out how to use one of those hanger space savers for your closet and create extra parking where there is no room? Perhaps a parking garage that is twice the size of the arena itself?…now that’ll be aesthetically pleasing. Hmph.
They were supposed to figure this out BEFORE the arena crap started. This is bogus.
I’ve said it before…. but, why doesn’t private enterprise build a high tech, small footprint robotic parking garage and make money doing it? Heck, the garage may become more popular than the arena…….
http://www.sterlingparking.com/
Hey, if they built a big parking garage, that might encourage the riff-raff to show up and spoil events for the high-rollers and friends who pushed way too hard for this arena to be built!
FYI: Multi-level reinforced concrete parking facilities are NOT WORKABLE for activities at which customers arrive/depart at approximately the same time. The proposed downtown arena is an example where large multi-level parking lots should not be used. er good example. Another example would be a business building where employees arrive at 8 AM and depart at 5 PM.
Try entering or exiting Kansas City’s Crown Center multi-level parking lots at 5 PM. The heat and exhaust of all those automobiles trying to exit at once can be stifling. Suffication seems preferable.
Multi-level parking lots for medical facilities such as Via Christi and Wesley are better because their users tend to arrive and depart throughout the day and evening avoiding the big traffic jam.
For sports facilities, ground level parking lots such as at the Kansas Coliseum and Arrowhead and the Royals stadiums in Kansas City are provided for fans. In fact part of the planned upgrade at Kansas Coliseum was to expand the number of entrances/exits and mark more lanes for ingress and egress. The idea of course to provide better deployment to I-135 and adjacent parkways and trafficways.
Hey JWink, I got some lime and some extra rope. We could just set us up dirt parking lot and charge 50 cent/hour until the city decides what they’re going to do.
Could stick a pony ride in the corner of the lot.
Okay, just wait a minute…when planning for an event (including HUGE events such as this) wichita clearly knew and understood the parking issues that will take place downtown when/if the arena is ever in place. Think back to anytime we have riverfestival or any other activity downtown… How long does it take you to get out of that area?? The city has already spent thousands and I mean THOUSANDS of dollars on trying to figure out how to build this by going to other cities and so-on. SO, each week or at LEAST once a month we hear about funding for schools, attractions, businesses, road repair, and other facilites whom need money. WHY for GOD SAKE aren’t we flooding money into at least our schools instead of wasting time and effort on something that is going to take a life time to figure out. I think the city needs give some options about the arena and parking issues and then there should be a revote. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out the needs of our city, so get it together people!
“WHY for GOD SAKE aren’t we flooding money into at least our schools…”
You must be new here. We’ve put so much money into the skools, the skool board is running out of excuses.
My pops always tells me, that Wichita has always been behind times. I have to agree. If we had built this arena 10 years before the vote, we would have had it built and saved a lot of money.
I voted for this arena, and I want it built. This city needs to stop being so regressive and learn how to move forward.
I do have one problem however. I do feel the people in charge of this project don’t seem to be either honest or have a clue as to what they are doing. While I want this to be built, I have little trust in our city council or anyone involved to get it done properly (see the horrible design, and parking).