The in basket: Tiffany Royal and Willadean Howell of Bremerton are perplexed by the changes in parking on 11th Street east of Warren Avenue.
Tiffany says “The city/parking enforcement finally put up 2-hour
signs on 11th Street, so folks can only park for two hours, Mon-Fri
from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Since the parking was added on 11th between
Warren and Pacific in 2013, the additional parking has been used,
during those hours, by those who are obviously shipyard/downtown
workers, from basically 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Parking on 11th is empty
after work hours.
“Today, as I sit at my house, it’s a desert and as empty as it was
when 11th was four lanes wide,” she said..
“Why put restrictions on these particular parking spaces?” she
asked. “They’re not super premium like the ones closer to the
downtown core (or are they, since employees used them?). And who
are these spaces for anyway? Outside of the work week, 11th is just
as empty as it is right now.
Willadean, who lives on Pleasant Avenue, said that due to cars in the parking spaces on 11th east of Pacific, where there is no time limit, “it’s nearly impossible to get out of Pleasant onto 11th without nearly getting hit. You can’t see traffic coming.”
The out basket: Thomas Knuckey of the city traffic engineers said of the timed spaces west of Pacific, “the two-hour parking is an interim restriction that was put on 11th to address parking issues associated with adjacent construction; both the Washington Avenue project along with an apartment building on Highland.
“The issue is that limiting parking to two hours makes spaces available both for Washington Avenue residents, and also provides parking for service/construction vehicles who were using the on-street parking in and around Highland and causing issues for residents.
“It is anticipated this time restriction will be removed after the work is complete,” he said.
As for Willadean’s complaint, Tom said “We checked the sight distance and concur that it needs to be improved; we’re therefore eliminating parking on the south side of 11th between Pacific and Pleasant to address the issue.”
