Lowcountry Weekly readers share their opinions on Beaufort’s parking conundrum

Your comments continue to stream in following our story Parking Pains in the January 5^th edition. We wanted to know how you felt about the situation, and apparently feelings are pretty strong. The idea was simply to get some dialogue going and while that’s certainly happened, we were a bit surprised at how much time, thought and effort went into some of these emails. The vast majority of you favor free parking downtown with a three-hour limit on Bay Street. There were some interesting alternatives shared as well, most of them based on experiences in places with similar challenges. And not all were limited to parking. Indeed, parking seemed to be a springboard to address other issues and concerns.

Since last we visited what’s become known as the Downtown Parking Plan (or, as I prefer to call it, The Bay Street Conundrum) changes have been made. During the January 11^th Beaufort City Council session, Council issued something of a reprieve for downtown businesses and anyone who’s been pushed to the brink of decorum by the simple attempt to park a car and spend some money.

As always, there is good new and there is bad news. The good news is a change in hours and rates. But the really good news is this: the kiosks along Bay Street are on the way out. That’s right, these ill tempered, metallic monsters from the Dark Side are to be uprooted.