COTC - 11 Mar 2026 - Traverse City Parking

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Good morning, Northern Michigan. This is your cup

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of Traverse City for the 03/11/2026.

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I'm Mike, and I do have my coffee.

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So,

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the city of Traverse City, who took over

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from the downtown development

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authority in Traverse City, took over the parking,

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is

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eyeing some,

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parking rate increases,

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you know, changes to an alley, Rotary Square

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Alley. I'm not sure where that is, but

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a lot of

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things are changing,

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you know, in the parking world in Traverse

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City. So, you know, part part of the

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problem

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is they're gonna be taking

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away some spots

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on Lot B where the farmer's market is.

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I think we did a story on the

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pavilion they're building over there, and that's gonna

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take it from a 136

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spots down to a 100.

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And

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a lot of these

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spaces,

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well, if they're, you know, there's West State

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Street.

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They're

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gonna lose 57

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spaces

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because it's gonna be redeveloped.

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Mobility improvements on State Street will eliminate some

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on street parking.

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You know, some of the other things is

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they oversell these lots for, you know, permits.

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State treats State Street's Lot P,

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one of the two main surface permit lots

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along with Lot T next to the Farmers

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market

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along Union Street.

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The city has a 157

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active permit or 357

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active permits for a 198

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spaces which

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means they're oversold by 80%.

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Industry standard is 30%

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oversell.

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If they take away Lot P completely, that

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would push the oversell for Lot T to

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a 153%

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and that's not cool.

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The city has issued a moratorium on permit

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sales

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and is now renew you know, is now

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only renewing them. Commissioners

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noted that

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the spaces may actually be lost and

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some projects may not move forward which can

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you know which include their own parking

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blah blah blah. Anyway,

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you know part of the problem is they're

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they're not making any money. They're, not even

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breaking even,

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you know, on the lot on the West

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Side. The parking deck on the West Side

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isn't doing very well,

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or I guess, West Side. It's it's a

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long union.

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You know the one on Front Street I

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guess is doing alright

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and they're planning on building yet another one

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at some point somewhere.

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But I've always said that I really don't

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want to live somewhere where I have to

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routinely

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pay to park and I don't routinely have

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to park, or pay to park here

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in Traverse City because I don't do a

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whole lot of business downtown. You know? I'm,

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you know, mostly

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out of, out of the the paid parking

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zone in Traverse City.

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And, you know, like during Cherry Festival, if

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I go to any events down there, I

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ride my bike,

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so I don't have to pay to park

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that.

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You know, just

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but, you know, if this

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becomes a problem, you know, that that sucks.

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I visited Ann Arbor.

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I think it was last year.

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We went down to Ann Arbor and actually

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we camped

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outside Ann Arbor at a campground, but there

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was no place to park period.

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It wasn't even a game day.

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You know, it was the day before a

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game day and

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there is just nowhere to park in

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the city of Ann Arbor,

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especially, you know, on a summer

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day and, you know, in Traverse City, I

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guess, is the same way. Again, I don't

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attempt to do it very often

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in downtown, but

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it can become a problem.

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So

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let's see what the weatherman has to say

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today.

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Oh, another thing they're gonna do,

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forgot, is they're going to

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include some new fees for EV charging and

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and all that so

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you know I guess in some of the

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parking decks they have EV chargers that they

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didn't have fees on or something. I don't

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know.

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Anyway, here's the weather. Today,

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cloudy with freezing rain possible this morning, changing

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to light snow at times. High around 33

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slippery roads possible.

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And yeah, we got some thunderstorms last night

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and we heard a little rumble in here

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and there

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and a significant amount of rain. I don't

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know what the amount was but there's puddles

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in my driveway.

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And tonight cloudy with cloudy and cold with

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lingering snow showers around 23. I don't think

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there's gonna be any significant

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accumulation

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but hey still snow.

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Tomorrow, mostly cloudy with occasional snow showers. High

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near 34,

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which means it won't stick very long.

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And there's a couple of events.

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The annual youth art show featuring k through

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12 student artwork continues this week at Denos.

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Denos always shows up in these events, but

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that's good. That's good. That's what the that's

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what it's there for.

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And, of course, Saint Patrick's Day events and

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pub crawls are starting to pop up across

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Northern Michigan heading into the weekend.

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When is it? Eleventh?

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When is Saint Patrick's Day?

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Anyway,

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I guess I'll figure that out and, and

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I'll have green artwork for that episode, I'm

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sure.

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Anyway, if you're gonna participate in pub crawls,

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have a designated driver and be careful.

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People tend to do stupid things when, they're

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doing a pub crawl. So

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beware.

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Catch you tomorrow.