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Show Main Street Parking Meters Just the Beginning Soon It Could Be Called Pay-to-Park City and, after walking a half mile in the high altitude in their ski boots to get to the bottom of the Ski Team chairlift, they can only make a couple of runs down Clementine before they have to stop for a short break By John Harrington “By this time in two or three years, there will be no such thing as a free parking space in Park City.” That's the way Park City Olympic Coordinator Frank Bell sees it. His comment came up during a discussion about how much it will cost and what the impacts will be to host the Park City-area portion of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. The bak { future Rell outlined for Park City is somehow quite odd for a resort town, because Bell said over the next few years, it may become impossible to even bring a private vehicle into town if youre nota resident or headed to a place with its own paid private parking. Whatever public parking there is in, or out, of town will be paid parking, mostly in far-flung “satellite lots.” It’s the coming thing in Park City, Bell said. It’s odd because it seems the whole point ofa resort area is to get people to come to it with as few hassles as possible. In this part of the world, which lacks even the most basic forms of reliable, well-scheduled, wide-service mass transit, if people don’t arrive in town via a private vehicle, most won't be arriving at all. Over the years, a big pile of cash has been spent promoting Park City as the spot to come for a great time - winter or summer. Shops and restaurants eagerly awaited the peak seasons, where bursts of revenue from free-spending, free-parking tourists could make an entire year and stave off another bout of resort-town depression. Now a different approach is in the offing for Park City and its environs, satellite paid parking lots with shuttle service like the due to exhaustion. They each decide to have coffee and a cookie to boost their energy and get acclimatized before one of them drops from oxygen deprivation. There goes another 24 bucks. They stagger back onto the hill. After a few more runs, it’s lunch time. They eagerly devour their $6 chili, $8 hotdogs, down some $5 beers and quickly run up a $65 tab. By 3 p.m. everybody's exhausted. It’s down to the bottom for another $30 in after-ski 3.2 brewskis and tortilla chips. Plans are laid for dinner. After some debate, a restaurant You have to pay to park on Main Street in Park City. trudging over to a kiosk with four kids in tow, standing bus picks everyone up and last six miles into town for David Cumming. That's right, in addition to paying $50 for a lift ticket, visitors to the slopes of the the privilege of spending a few hundred dol- out money to park. The ski area’s spin doctors say it’s just one of those necessary evils that come with the times. It will take a couple of years to get there, but that’s where it’s going. By then, Bell said, free parking will be but a memory everywhere in the Park City area. Maybe people won't complain. When 10 bucks a day, maybe three or around until a drives them the lars on skiing or in shops and restaurants? If that doesn’t sound appealing - well, that’s because it isn’t. How, you might ask a few years from now, did this trend begin? Mark it down. As the Park City Council was deciding to put strange European-like parking meters on BUY GOOD were determining that underground parking would be paid parking. As the now free ski parking lots are developed with high-rise condominiums, free parking at the resort will disappear. Parking beneath the developments will almost certainly be paid parking. “Once we put buildings on those lots and cover the parking, it will all be paid parking,” said apres ski experience, you're into the day for USED OR NEW CLOSEOUTS where eee SKIS AND GET 1/2 BACK ee 10 dollar bill? By the time you buy a lift ticket, eat on the mountain and have a short at least $100 per person, anyway. Under the coming scenario, visitors in Park City may soon have to pay repeated parking fees in different lots just for the right to even get in the vicinity of their entertainment. Think about it: Four visiting flatland adults eager to try Utah's different ski resorts drive to the Park City Mountain Resort in a $75-a-day four wheel drive rental Explorer from the $150-a-day/double occupancy Red Lion Hotel in Salt Lake City. As they pull into the parking lot, they get hit up for 10 bucks to park the rental. Then they lay out $200 for lift tickets SLC ATTRACTION’S Over antique, autos on & for to get to town, have to follow the signs to the “Main Street shuttle lot” over by the US Highway 40 interchange. Once there, they are hit for another parking fee. They are “processed” to Main Street, where they each settle on a T-shirt purchase for $30 because they can't carry anything else. Dinner for four follows in a crowded “famous” local restaurant. Tab: $300, but it’s OK because one of the women in the foursome thinks she saw Robert Redford. At 10:30 p.m., the shuttle drops them out at the Highway 40 lot. It is now 22 degrees below zero and the rental car won't start. Welcome to the Pay-to-Park City vacation from hell. It’s strange how people see things. Myles Rademann, Park City’s image guru recently told The Salt Lake Tribune that Park City was carefully planning so it wouldn't turn out to be “Murray in the mountains.” God forbid! Well, you don’t have to worry there, Myles. If things pan out the way they seem to be headed, Park City and Murray will have little in common. As it turns out, Murray will be easier to visit - a much kinder and gentler place with acres of shopping, a great view of the Wasatch and tons of free parking just down hill from Solitude. @ CLASSIC aoe INT’L 100 classic display sale a ALL PACKAGES INCLUDE BOOTS, SKIS, BINDINGS « FITTED WE SERVICE ALL SKI BINDINGS « PARTS TOO New & Used SKI SALE CHOOSE FROM 12,000 Items | Skl TRUCKS WE TRADE KIDS SKIS! BACKPACKS $35, TENTS $167, Inside State Fair Park in Salt Lake SLEEPING BAGS $18*, JOG SHOES $5*. No. Temple $200 RAICHLE HIKING BOOT $68! FREE PARKING 595-0919 EP PAGE 6 « FEBRUARY 1998 2 OE |ARD, ANON SHAPED Resort will be laying you ski these days, what the hell is another SNOWBOARDS AND SKI PACKAGES OUR Park City Mountain Main Street for the 1998 tourist season in an obvious effort to keep locals away, the new owners of the Park City Mountain Resort EE streets.” Will visitors have to look forward to parking somewhere in Snyderville for five or DEMO It’s uptown, But in order to get there, the four Park City visitors, who have traveled 2,300 miles long-term parking at the airport. Exactly like the airport, in fact, only further away. “It's something wed been looking at anyway,” Bell said. “But the Olympics will force it to happen. We have to get the cars off the DON’T RENT! e COME is chosen. everyone wants to go to the charming Main Street business district to do some shopping before dinner. 355 W 700 S. © 84101 * 801-322-5509 MUSEUM OPEN SIX DAYS 8:30- 6:00 P.M. (SUN. BY APPT.) Admission $6 donation to Utah Boys Ranch. Seniors and children $4. Discount with this Ad. |