Sprint Center concertgoers have been getting in their cardiovascular workouts.
In fact, lots of people are opting to make a long trek to the new arena instead of paying a premium for a prime parking space.
In the spirit of the pedestrian wave sweeping downtown, I recently took a stroll with Bruce Campbell, the city’s manager of parking services. Campbell is known throughout City Hall as the parking czar.
And when it comes to parking, his one big surprise is the public’s willingness to walk and walk and walk. Concertgoers seem to have accepted the notion that they can’t just drive up and park across the street from the arena. The irony is, concertgoers can park across the street from the arena. But they aren’t.
The Kansas City Live parking garage at 13th Street and Grand Boulevard is just west of the Sprint Center. The brick-facade structure holds 1,000 spaces available for $10 a pop. But during Garth Brooks’ nine-show run, only 200 cars on average have been parking in the garage.
Instead, people are hitting the pavement from as far west as the surface parking lots near Bartle Hall and as far south as Crown Center.
“People are parking, and they’re walking,” Campbell said. “The whole thing about people up in arms about having to walk to the Sprint Center just has not happened.”
Concertgoers may not be patronizing the Kansas City Live parking garage in part because of the lack of a sign that would let the public know the facility is available.
Campbell promised that oversight will be corrected soon.
The AT&T Town Pavilion garage at 12th Street and Grand Boulevard has reached only 50 percent capacity on busy nights. In fact, the city had a contingency plan on the night of Brooks’ performances in case parking downtown became super tight. Under the plan, traffic was to be diverted to the city’s underground parking garage near Municipal Auditorium.
“We thought we’d get so many cars that we’d be radioing up there to fill in,” Campbell said. “It never happened. And it hasn’t happened yet. People park there and walk. But we didn’t have to go into an overflow mode.”
As Campbell approached the Kansas City School District headquarters near 12th and McGee streets, he changed the subject, pointing out where an upcoming experiment using new parking technology will be conducted.
Instead of the old machines that take only coins, the city wants to experiment with a machine that accepts any type of currency. An example of the machine they are considering is now being used in the H&R Block parking garage. That device will accept major credit cards or even big bills.
The machines’ trial run will begin in early 2008 and will last six to nine months. Kansas City’s Downtown Council also will be involved.
“Part of our challenge will be to get people acclimated to a new technology,” Campbell said. “We want to get new businesses to buy into the new technology out there because it affects their customers.”
While there’s plenty of parking available downtown now, the dynamics will change once the Kansas City Live district opens and the Big 12 basketball tournament comes to town.
It’s been a long time since we had people traipsing around downtown on foot in such numbers.
The trend, sure to continue, will definitely help the downtown businesses that people will have to walk by to get where they’re going.
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