COTC - 11 Mar 2026 - Traverse City Parking

0:00 Good morning, Northern Michigan. This is your cup of Traverse City for the 03/11/2026. I'm Mike, and I do have my coffee. So, the city of Traverse City, who took over from the downtown development authority in Traverse City, took over the parking, is eyeing some, parking rate increases, you know, changes to an alley, Rotary Square Alley. I'm not sure where that is, but a lot of things are changing, you know, in the parking world in Traverse City. So, you know, part part of the problem is they're gonna be taking away some spots on Lot B where the farmer's market is.

0:51 I think we did a story on the pavilion they're building over there, and that's gonna take it from a 136 spots down to a 100. And a lot of these spaces, well, if they're, you know, there's West State Street. They're gonna lose 57 spaces because it's gonna be redeveloped. Mobility improvements on State Street will eliminate some on street parking. You know, some of the other things is they oversell these lots for, you know, permits. State treats State Street's Lot P, one of the two main surface permit lots along with Lot T next to the Farmers market along Union Street.

1:37 The city has a 157 active permit or 357 active permits for a 198 spaces which means they're oversold by 80%. Industry standard is 30% oversell. If they take away Lot P completely, that would push the oversell for Lot T to a 153% and that's not cool. The city has issued a moratorium on permit sales and is now renew you know, is now only renewing them. Commissioners noted that the spaces may actually be lost and some projects may not move forward which can you know which include their own parking blah blah blah. Anyway, you know part of the problem is they're they're not making any money. They're, not even breaking even, you know, on the lot on the West Side. The parking deck on the West Side isn't doing very well, or I guess, West Side. It's it's a long union.

2:43 You know the one on Front Street I guess is doing alright and they're planning on building yet another one at some point somewhere. But I've always said that I really don't want to live somewhere where I have to routinely pay to park and I don't routinely have to park, or pay to park here in Traverse City because I don't do a whole lot of business downtown. You know? I'm, you know, mostly out of, out of the the paid parking zone in Traverse City. And, you know, like during Cherry Festival, if I go to any events down there, I ride my bike, so I don't have to pay to park that. You know, just but, you know, if this becomes a problem, you know, that that sucks.

3:30 I visited Ann Arbor. I think it was last year. We went down to Ann Arbor and actually we camped outside Ann Arbor at a campground, but there was no place to park period. It wasn't even a game day. You know, it was the day before a game day and there is just nowhere to park in the city of Ann Arbor, especially, you know, on a summer day and, you know, in Traverse City, I guess, is the same way. Again, I don't attempt to do it very often in downtown, but it can become a problem.

4:11 So let's see what the weatherman has to say today. Oh, another thing they're gonna do, forgot, is they're going to include some new fees for EV charging and and all that so you know I guess in some of the parking decks they have EV chargers that they didn't have fees on or something. I don't know. Anyway, here's the weather. Today, cloudy with freezing rain possible this morning, changing to light snow at times. High around 33 slippery roads possible. And yeah, we got some thunderstorms last night and we heard a little rumble in here and there and a significant amount of rain. I don't know what the amount was but there's puddles in my driveway.

5:00 And tonight cloudy with cloudy and cold with lingering snow showers around 23. I don't think there's gonna be any significant accumulation but hey still snow. Tomorrow, mostly cloudy with occasional snow showers. High near 34, which means it won't stick very long. And there's a couple of events. The annual youth art show featuring k through 12 student artwork continues this week at Denos. Denos always shows up in these events, but that's good. That's good. That's what the that's what it's there for. And, of course, Saint Patrick's Day events and pub crawls are starting to pop up across Northern Michigan heading into the weekend.

5:45 When is it? Eleventh? When is Saint Patrick's Day? Anyway, I guess I'll figure that out and, and I'll have green artwork for that episode, I'm sure. Anyway, if you're gonna participate in pub crawls, have a designated driver and be careful. People tend to do stupid things when, they're doing a pub crawl. So beware. Catch you tomorrow.