Arena Parking Challenge

[GRID]

Come on people, don't pay $20 to park downtown.  The Oak garage is always wide open.  it's a block from the arena.  Secure, covered parking.  You can park along grand and share a cab for five bucks, you can park for free on the street within five blocks, especially in the loop (most people just avoid the loop north of 12th).

[scooterj]

you can park for free on the street within five blocks, especially in the loop

Well not so much in the loop during the time Grovestr was there... the free street parking in the loop is just weekends and weekdays after 6pm.

[PumpkinStalker]

For those of you that work downtown, but live in the burbs, does your employer cover your parking costs?  When you come to downtown events are you allowed to park in your lot?

When I lived in Lee's Summit I worked for Argus at 10th and Central and we parked in the garage on Wyandotte behind Library Lofts.  They encouraged us to park there after hours for free if we were attending an event.  Now I leave my car at Hallmark and take the max from CC or walk.

[schugg]

Now I leave my car at Hallmark and take the max from CC or walk.

Do you mean for like lunch or overnight?

[PumpkinStalker]

Well during events, I can park and ride so to speak.  After work, I can just take the max to the loop if it's not nice enough to walk.  I come back to get it the same night.

[scooterj]

My employer pays half the cost of parking, the other half is a deduction on my paycheck.  About $25 I think... not a big deal.

And yeah, we're allowed to use the garage for events, our monthly permits cover those too.

[Angel]

WST garage is charing $20 to park tonight. 

[shaffe]

WST garage is charing $20 to park tonight. 

yeah, and one block south in town pavilion it's only $10.  i should go over there and laugh at anybody who pays to park at wall street tonight.

[scooterj]

I'm at Zoo Bar and there's empty free parking spaces on McGee less than one block from the arena.

[coreyo]

I got downtown at around 11am. I parked over at 9th and Central I think it was. It was a $5 parking lot. After the last game, I went to Gordon Biersch for a beer before heading home. By then, the parking lot had cleared and so had the parking attendant. Gate was open..lovely free event parking!

UPDATE:  Parking today was a cinch. Free parking on the street. Not sure why anyone was parking at the $15+ parking when there were loads spots on the street for free right next to the lot.

[KCMax]

I felt kinda dumb today. We left my buddy's place in Olathe at 12:30 to make the 2pm game thinking there'd be traffic and parking issues to deal with and we wanted to see the pregame lineups and stuff. We made it to downtown in about half an hour, got to Barney Allis Plaza, and decided that wasn't too far to walk, and that $10 wasn't bad to pay for parking. The walk wasn't bad at all and as we got to SC, we saw that Town Pavilion was waving cars on in and was also $10. D'oh!!! Then we got in our seats and noticed it was only 1pm, and we were an hour early for the game.

Parking downtown is too easy. I need more of a challenge.

[LenexatoKCMO]

I didn't post this earlier because I was out of town last week and then promptly sat my ass in the Sprint Center for three days but it's a story worth telling. 

Last monday night we went down to Chefbuger to check it out.  The district was pretty dead, as you would expect on a Monday evening.  While we were there, the fox 4 news correspondent is there shooting a remote.  He comes over to our table and asks us where we had parked.  I told him that we had walked the 6-7 blocks from our home.  I asked him deadpan if he was doing a story about how easy it is to park.    He sort of clammed up and smiled said "uh that's not quite the story we are telling . . . "  I asked him if he noticed on his way in that evening that he could park for free on the street within two blocks in any direction.  He replied that this was a long ways to walk and wasn't "in the district".  I asked him how far he usually walked to get inside Wal Mart.  He kind of smiled and said good point and walked away.  Needless to say, the news story presented a grim parking picture and my interview didn't make the cut.      Sadly, he went over and interviewed Christopher Elbow and his dining partner and they surprisingly gave him just the depressing soundbite he was looking for. 

I will give big Kudos to Kevin Kietz - he went off on the TV news stories about parking Thursday and called them out for creating unecessary fear.  He pointed out that his teenage son who had never driven DT before, was able to pull right into a $5 lot within a few blocks of the arena on Thurday afternoon. 

[LaurenKU]

I was at the tournament Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and we parked in the H&R Block garage two blocks from the arena, got our ticket validated and paid $2 each day.  I've been to quite a few tournament sites, and I think this was as easy as it's ever been.

[DaveKCMO]

I will give big Kudos to Kevin Kietz - he went off on the TV news stories about parking Thursday and called them out for creating unecessary fear.  He pointed out that his teenage son who had never driven DT before, was able to pull right into a $5 lot within a few blocks of the arena on Thurday afternoon. 

they tell this story because it's easy to believe, even though it's patently false. even if you do walk the same distance in the wal-mart parking lot, is that any more pleasant than a proper sidewalk and crosswalk? i'd take a 6-7 block walk downtown over a quarter-mile hike through a surface lot any day.

[scooterj]

When I was volunteering at Crown Center this weekend I did have a few out-of-towners who chose to drive their own cars to the Sprint Center for the games.  Not a single one reported any problems finding parking.  One of them ended up using the $2 H&R Block garage, others parked for free near 12th & Walnut, 12th & McGee, and on Baltimore.

It was kinda cool that as guests returned they would tell me about their experiences. 

[Maitre D]

I was at the tournament Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and we parked in the H&R Block garage two blocks from the arena, got our ticket validated and paid $2 each day.  I've been to quite a few tournament sites, and I think this was as easy as it's ever been.

We left that lot on SAT nite, 12:30am ish.  There were plenty of spots.

The garage attendant was riding thru the place on a Segway.  He was stopped by our car talking to someone.  When we got close, a dude was lying on his back next to his car, drunk as a skunk babbling.  Freaking awesome.

[kcmetro]

We left that lot on SAT nite, 12:30am ish.  There were plenty of spots.

The garage attendant was riding thru the place on a Segway.  He was stopped by our car talking to someone.  When we got close, a dude was lying on his back next to his car, drunk as a skunk babbling.  Freaking awesome.

You should've offered me a ride home!  j/k

[Maitre D]

You should've offered me a ride home!  j/k

No way, you're a dude!

[geeman68]

Are people truly that lazy?  I'm a big guy, 260 pounds and not in the best of shape but I parked 4-5 blocks away and walked to the KC Auto show.  When the tourney was down at Kemper as well as some other big events, I've had to park in the boonies and hoof it to the arena.  Have you ever been to Oak Park Mall over the holidays?  There are downtown parkers that have to park anywhere from 3 to 7 blocks away from their office or get dropped off or picked up by KCATA 1 to 8 blocks away.

Really?  Really?  I work on 9th and Grand and have walked to Sprint Center and to the P&L over my lunch break just to see all the things happening and to take in all of the excitement.  It's just sad if people are really that distressed over parking.

[GRID]

The KC Business Journal has stupid readers too (like the Star).

I can't believe $4.5 billion has been spent Downtown, and there is still not enough parking.  Who will take the hit for this mess, Cordish or the city? I'm sorry, I lost my mind for a minute; the only people taking a hit on all of this mess are the taxpayers of Kansas City.

I don't even know what that means, but it's typical ignorance.

KC's parking fetish lives on...