How to keep visitors out of downtown

In our society's continued efforts to offer fewer services for the same (or more) money is the automatic parking lot.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept, it's just as it sounds. You go in, you park. You pay a machine that gives you a receipt. That receipt then gets you out of the lot. Simple in concept, abosuletly horrible in execution. Of the various times I have used these lots, never once has it gone smoothly. Someone always forgets to pay ahead of time; and more often than not, there's trouble with the machine at one end or the other, leading to long lines and frustraited patrons.

Tonight was my turn. I spent 10 minutes in the freezing cold trying to force the ticket (which I had dutifully paid for earlier) into a machine. I finally gave up and hit the talk button. That person may have been somewhere on the premises -- or halfway across the city for all I knew -- he just told me I was doing it wrong. I wasn't, but it took a few more minutes of tyring before a security guard type came over, looked at it, and realized the machine wasn't working. Now, could he pass me through the line, after standing in the freezing cold for all that time? Of course not. I had to cut into the other line to finally extract myself from the ramp.

It put me in a remarkably foul mood -- one that erased most of the good cheer I had from the show I had just seen at the Guthrie. And I imagine the other folks who've had this experience over the months had the same reaction. They weren't talking about the show they saw or the time at the museum or the great restaurant or just having a good time downtown. They were complaining about the damn parking. Considering this is in the district that Minneapolis has spent a lot of money to redevelop and is hanging its future on, that's not a good sign. People already are worried about safety downtown. They don't like the hassles they have to deal with while there; and they certainly don't want to cap it off by wasting time in the parking lot because the city doesn't want to hassle with any kind of human contact to deal with problems. In the end, people find other places to go -- some in more friendly neighborhoods in the city; many out to the suburbs where things are a lot easier.

And I know exactly where they are coming from. After tonight, if it wasn't for my job, I doubt I'd go back to the Guthrie again. I certainly don't plan to head downtown for any outside fun in the near future -- and it's at most five minutes from my house.