 "Photo: James Crawford / THE DAILY GAMECOCK")
It was about 3 p.m. in Five Points last July when a brick smashed through the window of a Five Points employee’s car parked on Pavillion Street. It was 6 p.m. before anyone noticed.
Stephen Stanton, 22, who works at Strictly Running, had a GPS, phone and phone charger stolen from his car, which was parked in one of the few free parking lots in Five Points. His biggest complaint was the lack of police surveillance in an area that he has no choice but to park in.
“I think it’s ridiculous that the road was not monitored,” Stanton said. “It obviously wasn’t driven down for three hours and my car just sat there for three hours while I was at work.”
Now in an effort to solve this and the problem of parking accommodation in Five Points, the City of Columbia has made a $2 million purchase of two lots at 2126 and 2132 Devine Street for both employees and customers to pay to use.
The lots will be located half a block from Harden Street and will contain 120 to 150 parking spots. They will also be the new location of the Columbia Police Department’s south region headquarters.
John Spade, the City of Columbia’s parking director, hopes that employees will use the lots and said they will be safe for anyone parking there.
“Any parking that is there is going to be extremely well lit,” Spade said. “There will be security cameras, call boxes and it will be next to the police department. There will also be a lot more police patrolling that area due to the new location of their headquarters.”
Spade said that, while the lots can be used by anyone, employees are encouraged to park there.
“All the studies we have done indicate that if we can get employees off the street, it creates a lot more customer friendly parking,” Spade said.
Joseph Azar, owner of Upstairs Audio and a City of Columbia Mayoral candidate for 2010, agrees that employees need a new place to park.
“Having somewhere where employees can park is good because if employees park in these spaces on the street they’re hurting themselves by hurting their own businesses,” said Azar.
However, the new lots are not free. According to Spade, there will be meters and reserved spaces in the Devine Street parking lots. Employees wishing to reserve a spot in the lots will have to pay $20 a month for parking. There will also be some restrictions on overnight parking.
“A portion of the lot will be metered with long-term meters and a portion of the lot will be reserved for long-term employees,” Spade said. “We’ll probably have an additional part of that parking reserved for night.”
The question is whether or not employees will be willing to pay this fee during the day and whether customers will be willing to pay for meters that aren’t in Five Points.
“If you are an employee of Five Points, I think you should be able to park in a lot for free,” Stanton said. “It’s grossly unfair to charge employees for the safety of their belongings. To charge them is un-American.”
Joseph Azar agrees with the $20 fee.
“If you work five days a week, that’s $1 a day,” Azar said. “The city’s got to pay for things one way or another. Employees can find spots if they need to; they just might need to walk an extra block.”
Although the city does not know when the lots will open, they have started working with the city engineer to design the lots. Spade said they will also insert more lights to make it more difficult for crime to occur.
“There are a lot of places in Five Points where crime is ignored, and I think it’s a step in the right direction,” Stanton said.
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