Topic: Cincinnati: Hyde Park: Valet Service on the Square

[The_Cincinnati_Kid]

Hyde Park Square valets find a spot
Merchants think parking squeeze being eased
BY STEVE KEMME | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

HYDE PARK - Guy van Rooyen drove around Hyde Park Square looking for a parking spot on an early weekday evening.

Nothing.

So he pulled into a space reserved for the square's valet parking service, handed $5 to a valet and walked to a restaurant to meet his wife for dinner.

"Five bucks isn't a bad deal just to get it done and not have the hassle of finding a parking spot," said van Rooyen, of Newport.

Valet parking is the newest amenity Hyde Park Square businesses are using to compete with the restaurants and stores at Rookwood Commons, Rookwood Pavilion and other locations.


http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060705/NEWS01/607050357/1056

[ForeverGlow]

People are such complainers. I think it's a fine idea and is helpful.

[cincyimages]

Agree, while I love to find the random "lucky" spot in front of Graeters on occasion, I don't have any problem parking in the lot ColDayMan showed me and just walking. 

[The_Cincinnati_Kid]

Hyde Park Square valet ruling might be Thursday
BY STEVE KEMME | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

HYDE PARK - The fate of the valet parking experiment on Hyde Park Square rests with a three-member board that monitors that service for Cincinnati.

For an hour Monday, Cincinnati's Valet Parking Board listened to supporters and detractors of the square's valet parking service. The board decided to consider the issue further before ruling.

Supporters say the service has been efficient and safe and opens up more parking spots on the square by removing 50 vehicles a night to a nearby private parking lot leased by the Hyde Park Business Association.

"We have to have valet parking to compete with other commercial areas that have it, including the Rookwood developments and Oakley and Mount Lookout squares," said Vince Bryant, owner of Teller's Restaurant on the square and vice president of the Hyde Park Square Business Association.


http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060718/NEWS01/607180346/1056

[David]

I have to agree with the elitist comment. That might not have been their intention, but come on...it's just a neighborhood square. Hyde Park is a nice nieghborhood to walk through so I don't get why people don't just walk a block or two to their destination.

[RiverViewer]

Hyde Park is elitist.  An entire neighborhood of $350K+ homes?  That drives old blue-collar Oakley into the $200K+ range, for what was under $100K a few years ago?  I've got nothing against Hyde Park, and it's beautiful and all, but for it to try to pretend to be anything other than an elite community of the wealthy is just absurd.  It's like pretending Mt. Adams is still a hippy's paradise - it ain't.

I love Hyde Park - rich folks gotta live somewhere too, and they're gonna dump money into their homes, and with an old housing stock and money dumped into it, it's gonna be a beautiful neighborhood.  I love that it's in the city.  I love that it supports high end grocery stores.  But honestly - Hyde Park and Mt. Adams are the very definition of elitist.  Let's not play make believe.

[David]

I don't know anyone in Hyde Park that I would consider "rich", more like upper-middle class. If people like the convenience of valet parking at HP Square then more power to them, I just enjoy walking through there so much and so easily find a side street to park on that I can't imagine there being a big demand for something like that. I'd also be weird about a stranger operating my car.

[cincyimages]

David, Hyde Park is rich, the people that live there might not be bank account rich but many of them are land/home rich.  I agree with Riverviewer, rich people have to live somewhere.  There are always the exception, I know you can find a few 2 bedroom homes for around $200K.  If you live in Hyde Park, you want to be around that scene.  I think Valet is great, I wouldn't do it but I think it is great that they offer it. 

And Rookwood is nothing more than Hyde Park's playground, Norwood pimped itself to Hyde Park.

[UCplanner]

And Rookwood is nothing more than Hyde Park's playground, Norwood pimped itself to Hyde Park.

Quote of the month!!

[buildingcincinnati]

Why couldn't they use one of the adjacent surface lots for valet parking? 

That would make more sense than taking up parking spaces right on the square, which might or might not be filled.  Instead, you pay a valet driver $5 to drive your car 10 feet and park it.

[cincyimages]

Some of those spots are simply for checking your car in, you pull into the spot and they move it to one of the suface lots.

[RiverViewer]

And lots just west of the square - don't they tow if you park in those lots?

When I was in the seminary up in Wickliffe, a sports bar opened up right across the street on Euclid.  Their lot would fill up on the weekends, and here, across the street, sat tons of parking.  The folks were a little loud, and often rather drunk, but that wasn't why they stopped letting folks park there - it was because our insurance told us how much our rates would go up if we offered free public parking - and it was a tremendous amount...

So, I'd imagine keeping the lots private, only valet access, opens up a number of surface spots that might not otherwise be available for parking - or at least that it could...

[cincyimages]

Hyde Park valet staying, for now
BY STEVE KEMME | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
HYDE PARK – Valet parking on Hyde Park Square will continue for at least another 30 days.

Cincinnati’s Valet Parking Board decided today to grant a second 30-day valet parking license to the Hyde Park Business Association.

At the end of 30 days, the board will evaluate the current valet parking arrangement and decide whether the valet parking service should be on the square, at another location near the square, or if it should be terminated.

Some Hyde Park Square businesses say they need valet parking to compete with other nearby business areas that have that service. But critics say they don’t like valet parking in the middle of the square, where it takes 10 metered parking spaces from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m., Wednesday through Saturday.


http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060720/NEWS01/307200029/-1/rss

[buildingcincinnati]

From the 8/16/06 Eastern Hills Journal:


PHOTO: Adam Rosenhagen, an employee with Star Parking, prepares to park a Ford Expedition as part of a valet service in Hyde Park Square.  FORREST SELLERS/COMMUNITY PRESS STAFF

Valet parking issue not in neutral
BY FORREST SELLERS | COMMUNITY PRESS STAFF WRITER

HYDE PARK -- The neighborhood of Hyde Park has once again reiterated its concerns about a valet service in the Square.

During its Aug. 8 meeting, the executive committee said it stands behind its motion to relocate valet parking to an area other than Erie Avenue between Edwards Road and Michigan Avenue. It also said the valet parking should not occupy more than five spaces.

During its July meeting council had suggested Edwards Road by the Echo Restaurant as a possible location.
 
The neighborhood council could not take an official vote Aug. 8 because it did not have a quorum.

"This is the heart of our community," Councilman Carl Uebelacker said. "(Valet parking) is taking away that heart. Council does not object to valet parking at other locations. We just don't want it in Hyde Park Square."


http://news.communitypress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060816/NEWS01/608160448/1002/RSS01

[RiverViewer]

"This is the heart of our community," Councilman Carl Uebelacker said. "(Valet parking) is taking away that heart."

Er...how exactly does it take away that heart?  What is this heart-ectomy mechanism?  Having a couple hundred folks drive to the square, leave their car, and start walking to Hyde Park's assorted destinations - that's bad?  Because I can tell you in ten years of living in Cincinnati, I think I've actually gotten a spot on the square maybe once.  Every other time, it's park in the lot behind Teller's, or on some side-street.  A lot of times I've gone to the square without having to walk around the actual frickin' square at all.  Seems to me the valet service opens the heart of Hyde Park Square up to many, many more people.

Not that there aren't arguments against it - but to pretend valet is a less person-dense use of some spaces on the square is just head-in-the-sand stupid.

[The_Cincinnati_Kid]

 
City OKs valet parking in Square
THE ENQUIRER

HYDE PARK - Cincinnati officials will allow valet parking in Hyde Park Square to continue for at least another year.

The Cincinnati Valet Parking Board granted the Hyde Park Square Business Association a one-year license for valet parking, which operates from 6 p.m. to midnight Wednesday through Saturday.

Valet parking has been permitted to operate on a trial basis for two 30-day periods.

Critics of the parking say it monopolizes too many parking spaces on the square and poses safety issues.

Supporters say it allows businesses on the square to compete with other business areas that have valet parking.
 
 http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060819/NEWS01/608190376/1056