| OCR Text |
Show In My Opinion ... (Guest editor of the first "In My Opinion . . ." of 1948 is Chamber of Commerce president, Ray D. Free.) Parking--Our Greatest Problem A FEW WEEKS ago, while visiting with the city commis-1 commis-1 sion as a member of a committee, our group was told that the center of population of Salt Lake City was within one city block of the Sugar House monument, this fact brings both encouragement and responsibility. We are happy to learn that our community is recognized as the geographical center of Salt Lake's population. We have long endeavored to make it the "shopping center" of the valley. val-ley. Many of our firms have done an outstanding job in this respect. Advertising and promotions sponsored by individuals, individu-als, stores and the Chamber of Commerce have all worked toward to-ward that end. But the question remains : What are we going to do for the people when we get them out here? What Do We Have to Offer? Our stores are well stocked with merchandise. This merchandise mer-chandise has constantly been "priced right" by most local merchants. Our customer service and courtesy has often been commended, but isn't the same thing true downtown? If so, what do we have to offer the public that is unavailable elsewhere else-where ? In the past we have had parking space, but even this outstanding out-standing asset is dwindling. Sugar House is located at the junction of two of the busiest highways in Utah. The volume of traffic would be in a constant state of tangle causing people peo-ple to detour around this community if it were not for the efficient efforts of the police. This traffic volume is an asset to us if it can be properly controlled and if parking space can be provided for those that wish to stop and shop. Sporadic attempts to help this situation have been made over a period of some 20 years. Progressive firms community commu-nity conscious individuals and the Chamber of Commerce have developed several good parking areas. The number of parking park-ing areas, the accessibility and size of them as shown by aerial photographs are a credit to the foresight of the builders of this community and a surprise to most of us. Still we find these parking lots ofttimes empty while employes and employers em-ployers of this community are parked in front of their own business bus-iness houses as well as their neighbors, thus depriving potential po-tential customers of parking space and themselves of patrons. We Can Do Better Many people who always used to shop in Sugar House to buy groceries and things of that sort because of the convenience conven-ience of the parking are now going elsewhere because we, the people of Sugar House, have removed the convenience of parking. The parking situation here is far better than it is downtown, but it is not as good as it should be. It is not as good as we can make it. If every employer and every employe who derives his livelihood from this community would resolve this year and henceforth to park off the street leave the desirable parking space for the patrons who make his livelihood possible then parking will cease to be the problem that it is today. This community has always been known for the cooperation and fellowship of its inhabitants. Let's utilize that cooperation! Within our community we can lick our greatest problem and today's greatest merchandising problem in America the problem of providing adequate parking space where the people peo-ple want to park. |
