Hey, Oneonta: “Leave Our Parking Spaces Alone!”

So this just happened.

Leslie Ann, who has her WZOZ broadcast studio at the front of our building at 32 Chestnut Street, said, "Hey, Big Chuck, what is going on with our parking spots out front?"

We went out to look and they are all tagged NO PARKING.  Our spots, and in fact all the spots from Main to Wall Street on the east side.  Wait...what?

It appears that the city is considering taking these spots out permanently to accommodate some new OPT buses that have recently been purchased that are 4" wider than other OPT buses.  The corner of Main and Chestnut has always been problematic.  In fact, Leslie Ann recently asked her listeners to name the most dangerous intersection in Oneonta and that one won....big.

So, apparently they are considering taking out the 7 parking spaces to make it easier for the buses to make the turn.  OK.

But what about us?

Seven spaces in front of a number of businesses  could be eliminated.  Remember, these seven spaces are used by BOTH sides of the street here, including the framing shop, the new barber shop, the jewlery appraisal store, our radio station, the offices next door, the beauty shop, plus others who use it for shopping around the corner at the restaurants and stores.

We placed calls to OPT and the Oneonta Police Department to no avail. 

We love our OPT and want them to be safe but what about all of the others who will be impacted by this?  It is tight, I know.  In fact I had a mirror of mine ripped off several years ago by a truck trying to squeeze through this intersection.

We hope they can figure this out.  And hey, Oneonta, what happened to a courtesy call to let us know why you have blocked our listeners from coming in for interviews and appointments.  We checked, and none of the businesses we talked to were given a heads up.

Not good.....