Good morning, Northern Michigan. This is your cup
of Traverse City for the 03/11/2026.
I'm Mike, and I do have my coffee.
So,
the city of Traverse City, who took over
from the downtown development
authority in Traverse City, took over the parking,
is
eyeing some,
parking rate increases,
you know, changes to an alley, Rotary Square
Alley. I'm not sure where that is, but
a lot of
things are changing,
you know, in the parking world in Traverse
City. So, you know, part part of the
problem
is they're gonna be taking
away some spots
on Lot B where the farmer's market is.
I think we did a story on the
pavilion they're building over there, and that's gonna
take it from a 136
spots down to a 100.
And
a lot of these
spaces,
well, if they're, you know, there's West State
Street.
They're
gonna lose 57
spaces
because it's gonna be redeveloped.
Mobility improvements on State Street will eliminate some
on street parking.
You know, some of the other things is
they oversell these lots for, you know, permits.
State treats State Street's Lot P,
one of the two main surface permit lots
along with Lot T next to the Farmers
market
along Union Street.
The city has a 157
active permit or 357
active permits for a 198
spaces which
means they're oversold by 80%.
Industry standard is 30%
oversell.
If they take away Lot P completely, that
would push the oversell for Lot T to
a 153%
and that's not cool.
The city has issued a moratorium on permit
sales
and is now renew you know, is now
only renewing them. Commissioners
noted that
the spaces may actually be lost and
some projects may not move forward which can
you know which include their own parking
blah blah blah. Anyway,
you know part of the problem is they're
they're not making any money. They're, not even
breaking even,
you know, on the lot on the West
Side. The parking deck on the West Side
isn't doing very well,
or I guess, West Side. It's it's a
long union.
You know the one on Front Street I
guess is doing alright
and they're planning on building yet another one
at some point somewhere.
But I've always said that I really don't
want to live somewhere where I have to
routinely
pay to park and I don't routinely have
to park, or pay to park here
in Traverse City because I don't do a
whole lot of business downtown. You know? I'm,
you know, mostly
out of, out of the the paid parking
zone in Traverse City.
And, you know, like during Cherry Festival, if
I go to any events down there, I
ride my bike,
so I don't have to pay to park
that.
You know, just
but, you know, if this
becomes a problem, you know, that that sucks.
I visited Ann Arbor.
I think it was last year.
We went down to Ann Arbor and actually
we camped
outside Ann Arbor at a campground, but there
was no place to park period.
It wasn't even a game day.
You know, it was the day before a
game day and
there is just nowhere to park in
the city of Ann Arbor,
especially, you know, on a summer
day and, you know, in Traverse City, I
guess, is the same way. Again, I don't
attempt to do it very often
in downtown, but
it can become a problem.
So
let's see what the weatherman has to say
today.
Oh, another thing they're gonna do,
forgot, is they're going to
include some new fees for EV charging and
and all that so
you know I guess in some of the
parking decks they have EV chargers that they
didn't have fees on or something. I don't
know.
Anyway, here's the weather. Today,
cloudy with freezing rain possible this morning, changing
to light snow at times. High around 33
slippery roads possible.
And yeah, we got some thunderstorms last night
and we heard a little rumble in here
and there
and a significant amount of rain. I don't
know what the amount was but there's puddles
in my driveway.
And tonight cloudy with cloudy and cold with
lingering snow showers around 23. I don't think
there's gonna be any significant
accumulation
but hey still snow.
Tomorrow, mostly cloudy with occasional snow showers. High
near 34,
which means it won't stick very long.
And there's a couple of events.
The annual youth art show featuring k through
12 student artwork continues this week at Denos.
Denos always shows up in these events, but
that's good. That's good. That's what the that's
what it's there for.
And, of course, Saint Patrick's Day events and
pub crawls are starting to pop up across
Northern Michigan heading into the weekend.
When is it? Eleventh?
When is Saint Patrick's Day?
Anyway,
I guess I'll figure that out and, and
I'll have green artwork for that episode, I'm
sure.
Anyway, if you're gonna participate in pub crawls,
have a designated driver and be careful.
People tend to do stupid things when, they're
doing a pub crawl. So
beware.
Catch you tomorrow.