Op-ed: The city says there is enough parking downtown, but the numbers don’t add up

This is an op-ed by Fred Schoeps, a member of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance Executive Committee and owns property on the Commons. He writes here as an individual, not on behalf of the DIA. To submit opinion pieces for consideration, please send them to The Ithaca Voice through the op-ed submission form. The debate over the Seneca Street garage has been framed as housing versus parking. That framing is wrong, and so are many of the numbers being used to settle it. City leaders have told the public that downtown has plenty of parking. Mayor Robert Cantelmo says the Cayuga Street garage is about half-empty on an average day. City Manager Dominick Recckio told Common Council in October that downtown has about 3,000 parking spaces. The Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency (IURA) economic development committee has approved the draft version without any changes. That version now goes to the IURA Board for final approval, after which time it goes back to Common Council.

This excerpt comes from the named source. Read the original for the full reporting.