The parking solutions outlined in the recent letter sent out by the parking committee are inadequate at best (“Workers occupying prime parking downtown,” Oct. 9 Times-News, Page 1A).

The amount of non-time sensitive parking downtown is very limited and almost all privately owned. This poses a very real problem for many of the people that make a living keeping the downtown tourist district in operation.

Many of the downtown employees work for very minimal wages. Servers at restaurants can make as little as $2.13 per hour. Kitchen employees and retail workers are often working for minimum wage. For a person making $275 per week, a daily parking expense becomes a problematic issue. A five day a week employee could end up paying as much as ten percent of their salary just to park.

The solution that is vaguely posed by the parking committee is for downtown employees to utilize satellite parking. This idea also poses some significant problems. The most important issue is that the safety of the many female employees is not taken into account.

These employees should not have to endanger themselves by walking to the underpass lot or some back alley at late night or early morning hours.

The icy walks downtown will also need to be addressed. I have personally slipped on the bricks and less frequently plowed alleys.

A better solution to this problem may be to open the pedestrian mall back up to one way traffic. The downtown mall has been struggling to keep its head above water for 30 years now. It seems clear that the current operating structure is not working.

I receive frequent complaints from tourists about how confusing it is to get to Baltimore Street from the highway exits because they can’t drive there. It is disheartening when I see a picture of what Baltimore Street used to be, and I realize that I will never get to experience that. The street could still be closed off for special events just as Washington Street is.

If this idea is too far out of reach, though I think many people in town would agree it is what needs to happen, then why don’t we encourage tourism by having free parking? If more traffic is what we desire downtown, this seems like it would definitely help to increase it.

The downtown mall is a beautiful place. I don’t know anyone who would not like to see it thrive again. The definition of insanity is doing things the way you have always done them and expecting a different result.

Well, the pedestrian walkway with paid parking has yet to work. A change is needed however; change efforts directed at minimum wage workers do not seem like the most reasonable solution.

Brock Shriver

Cumberland