No whine downtown parking

I know I'm quite the pest about reminding people about our downtown parking garage, but I feel like all of us downtown merchants need to be walking, talking parking garage promoters. Two recent incidents reminded me of this. First, after inviting my sister-in-law to join me at the Wednesday Farmer's Market, she said yeah, IF I can find a parking space. Sis, I love you, but you said that to the wrong person! My second observation came after visiting a shop in the Old Mill district. I had to park pretty far away from my destination, yet visually, because it's all laid out flat, it didn't look so bad. You're just walking along, but you have the buildings within your field of vision, so theoretically it seems like you're making progress. Downtown feels different. You might walk exactly the same number of steps, but because we have blocks of buildings, you don't necessarily see your end point, and therefore it may feel like more of a hike. But it's not.

I have to inject this little story about Paris last year. We visited during easter, which means the Parisians had made a mass exodus for coastal holidays (it was still crowded and busy, however). We also had a car with us, which I would not recommend to the faint of heart (spent a lot of passenger seat time curled up in the fetal position). Our darling friend Susan was guiding us around town and would shriek with delight and point at a parking spot to pull into. "I can't believe it!" she'd say every time. "We found parking! No one is here! Paris is empty!" And then we would still walk 20 blocks to wherever we were going, Susan so happy that we parked "so close." [Not a complaint, mind you, since half the fun of being in Paris is walking everywhere.]

Anyway, our wonderful little Bend downtown parking garage is close to everything. It is a bit of a mess there right now, with all the building going on, and I don't think much of the signage, but it's always open, and always, always available. How far away is it from the Farmer's Market? Three blocks. How much does it cost? Nothing. The first three hours are free (and truth be told, I don't think they check that often, and I should really put that in little tiny type if I knew how).

Garage, people.