Neighbors of the new public pool on Meade Park aren’t thrilled about its lack of parking, Gordon Block writes for The Hook. The pool complex can accommodate 225 people, but the parking lot—which appears to basically use all of the available land—can only fit 36 cars. There’s plenty of on-street parking, but folks who live in houses on and around Meade Avenue use those spaces to park their own cars. No problemo, though—City Council intends to limit some spaces to residents, and provide permits to folks who live nearby, once they’ve observed how much strain the pool places on existing parking. But some residents are angry that the pool will open this weekend without the permitting program already being in place.
Given that Council already has plans to solve the problem, it’s not clear that there’s anything to be done here. It’ll be interesting to see if this is actually a problem tomorrow.
At late afternoon on an opening day Saturday in 90 degree heat there was available parking spaces in the lot, on the street right in front and long spaces of open curbs in all directions.
I was surprised by the shortage of bicycle parking. There is only room for 4 bikes, and when I arrived today they were full. I suppose sign posts work for now. Motorized vehicle parking seemed in good shape to me, but I didn’t get a chance to look around the neighborhood.
That sounds like good news, guys—thanks for the reports. I’d anticipated that a lot of the folks visiting would be from the neighborhood, and coming on foot (and by bike, as you point out, Daniel), thus making the parking not much of a problem. The first weekend is certainly to early to draw any conclusions, but it’s a good sign that parking won’t be the issue that some folks worried it would be.
I suspect the real test for the neighborhood is going to be once we move in continued days of temperatures over 90 degrees and high humidity. It wasn’t all that hot on Saturday and mostly cloudy until afternoon.
lack not pack
Oops. :) Thanks, Elux Troxl. That’s me writing “its paucity of parking,” rethinking it, and changing it to “its lack of parking,” but obviously not finishing the job.
my son is a lifeguard at the pool, and was on duty all weekend. He says they were basically at capacity all weekend, so this weekend would be a fair representative of the magnitude of the “problem”
Waiting to see if there is a problem seems like a reasonable strategy
My daughter, also a lifeguard said the only real incidents were the smokers who ignored all signs and warnings and had to get back in line after leaving the pool for a smoke break.
With pool at capacity much of the day, they had to wait outside in line until people left to get their spot back on the decks.
Apparently most of the smokers were not only illiterate, but pretty nasty and rude, if not downright abusive.
But the point made above is clear, if the pool was maxxed out, no chance in the weather will put more people inside the fences.
The issue isn’t really how many people are inside the fence, it’s how many additional cars there are in the neighborhood. Not the same thing at all. You did mention a line didn’t you?
Waiting to see if there is a problem seems like a reasonable strategy
I’d rather a few people have to walk a couple blocks than the city spending tens of thousands of dollars on parking/usability studies.
That’s the problem, Chad Day. Sure, park a few blocks away, no problem. Except you’re taking up the parking spaces residents normally use in front of their homes.
Danpri, I think everybody gets the point, you dislike smokers. God help you if you had to live in any time period prior to last few decades. Smoking causes less health problems than obesity does. I don’t see half as many people whining about Whoppers, Big Macs and the Wendys Frosty. (Yes, I need to lose about 25 pounds. I put on the extra weight after becoming semi-retired and lazy!)
I believe Chad was saying that it’s best to wait and see if it’s actually a problem since, at this point, it’s not.
Actually, I think his point is that he dislikes stupid people. He didn’t say anything bad about smokers per se.
Smoking tobacco is a fad that goes back only a couple of centuries. Widespread smoking goes back only about a century, IIRC.
Until there’s such a thing as second-hand cholesterol, I can’t see why most people should care.
As a neighbor of the pool, I’m thrilled that it increased my property values. Bitching about parking problems that only exist a few months of the year seems like a glass half empty attitude.
The new pool is such an improvement. Bravo to all involved in it’s design and construction.
Increased property values are helping pay for the pool. But I bet you can’t sell your home for what it’s appraised at though. Not right now at least. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s 5 years or more before any city resident can actually sell there home for what it’s appraised at once again. Keep in mind of course that the home’s appraisal will be going up during that 5 years as well.
And Waldo, there is actually a second hand cholesterol factor in the equation. It causes my family’s health insurance rates to be higher. Not that we have to pay them, but the taxpayers are. Whether a person smokes, drinks heavily or weighs 350 pounds at 5’9″, they all increase our health insurance rates nationwide.
That’s far enough removed that, again, nobody’s approaching people in restaurants and telling them to lay off the gravy. If there was any widespread perception of clear causality, that would be the case. What with it not, people are upset about smoking, not obesity.
what if the free trolley extended its route to include the corner of market and meade, turned right
on meade and right again on carlton to hinton, over the belmont bridge and pickup its route towards
Main and the University? Probably add 5-10 minutes to the route but connect a lot more of the city’s destinations.
Not a parking issue, but an issue: the women’s rest room is constantly flooded with 1/2″ to 1″ of water because the floor isn’t sloped toward the drain: meant we went home without changing clothes or showering.
Didn’t see a single sign about smoking, so don’t doubt that other people were pissed to be informed about it after the fact.
I don’t think the signs were about smoking per se: I think the signs were about what happens if you leave the facility once you’ve gotten in. As in, “if you leave the pool, you will have to wait in line to return to the pool.” which has an impact on smokers who duck out for a smoke break and expect to cut back in ahead of everyone waiting in line.
maybe the smokers thought there was a special dispensation for them and the rules didn’t apply?
The real question is what parent can’t go 3, 4 or 5 hours without a cigarette while visiting the pool? If such an addition does exist, maybe the city should make some type of concession? What’s the problem with mommy or daddy going out, smoking a cigarette, and coming back in 5 minutes later to rejoin their children? I wouldn’t see it a special privilege, it’s just common sense, let a parent rejoin their children.
Once the newness of the pool wears off parking will not be an issue. Went to the pool with grandsons on Monday middle of day and no problem parking or getting in. Don’t make a situation worse by adopting some silly parking regulations that lack common sense.
What I didn’t like about the pool was the high cost of a swim. $3 for children under 48″ and $5 for children over 48″ and this was for city resisdents. A bit much. Also I think they need to have a special season pass for a family, i.e. family of 4 etc. etc.
Just my .02.
So, how does one prove that he/she is a city resident? Like, suppose someone had just moved to the county a few weeks earlier and still had a city address on their driver’s license? Not that I’m thinking of trying anything…
Also, if I brought a person not from Cville or Albemarle with me, could that person get in for the same rate as me?
County Resident, the pool is open to both city and county residents.
I know. But my understanding is that it’s $5 for city adult residents, $10 for non-residents. So what I’m wondering is how you prove that you are a city resident.
I don’t know the answer to that question. I would think pool attendants just have to take people’s word for it often. I don’t think the city expects smart people to carry their wallets (ID, credit cards, cash, etc) into such an insecure area.
Is there another alternative beyond “to basically use all of the available land” ? Meaning: Why use adverb ‘basically’? This is, basically, one of those verbal soundbite mannerisms, that basically drives me nuts. But note that I didn’t say ‘literally’, which I perhaps should have in the usual soundbite fashion even though it would have no sensible meaning literally.
Unfortunately, residents along Chesapeake have been experiencing what’s known as “water hammer” in their pipes over the last few weeks. In all likelihood, this is caused when water is added to the pool. The new facility has some mighty big pipes leading into it.
Significant water hammer can be disastrous on older pipes and infrastructure which aren’t designed to take that sort of an abrupt beating. This afternoon, a water main broke in a nearby resident’s front yard. It remains to be seen what, if anything, the City will do to ensure that this large facility doesn’t continue to have negative effects on the surrounding neighbors.
That’s pretty interesting, Victoria. If the inlet valve closes abruptly it sure will cause water hammer. I bet nobody saw that coming!
In a related note, I wonder how much and how often they have to add water to the pool? I would hope it hasn’t developed any major leaks already. How often do you hear or experience water hammer?
The neighbors down there have experienced it a couple times, and it’s certainly been dramatic. No idea how often they have to add water, but I don’t imagine it’s leaking yet!
As far as predicting it– the neighborhood is old and fairly modest, so the infrastructure isn’t the greatest. I asked the pool manager if this potential problem had been taken into account during the engineering feasibility study. Let’s assume a study of that sort was done prior to groundbreaking. Possibly at the same time as the parking impact study? ;-)
BTW, you were correct in your prediction. The line of parked cars increases a bit every day. A couple police were on Meade and E Jefferson today in those little Jeeps wrangling something or other.
I suspect the worst is to come. July and August should be quite the test for the parking situation in the neighborhood. And the guys and girls in the little white Jeeps are meter maids. Probably looking for parking violations. It’s quick and easy revenue for the city.
My daughter took her little niece down to the pool early Saturday afternoon. Couldn’t get in for the waiting line. They went elsewhere. I think the waiting line will get bigger each day, along with the cars it brings.
Came by the new pool about 2:00 p.m. today. Seems like the parking and waiting line to get in the pool is getting worse with each passing day. The waiting line reminds me of the Black Friday line waiting to get in at Best Buy and Circuit City at 5:00 a.m. :)