Here’s the article about Central Parking and their problems with their neighbors around their headquarters in Nashville. Basically, Central has consolidated some of its operations in their headquarters and added 100 new staffers in the Tennessee city and this has stressed out their parking so the new folks have had to park in the neighborhoods surrounding Central’s headquarters. And the neighbors have grabbed rhetorical pitchforks and torches and headed for the media.
The money quotes, first from the neighbors:
“They just don’t care,” said Susan Spry, whose home is closest to Central Parking’s headquarters at 2401 21st Ave. “It’s totally ridiculous. I’ve lived here 30 years and I’ve never seen anything like this before. The people who park here are rude and mean.”
Resident Cleve Weathers, who is a lawyer, said he has been inconvenienced by the overflow of vehicles.“Central Parking has multiple solutions they could use,” Weathers said. “It might cost them some money, but why should they do it when we’re providing them with free and relatively convenient parking? I don’t blame them for not doing anything. I wish they were better citizens, but that’s just the nature of businesses.”
And Central’s response:
“Central Parking has been going through a significant transformation since 2010, and its corporate office has made a substantial investment in the Nashville community by adding nearly 100 new jobs to the existing workforce at the company’s headquarters,” the company said in a statement. “At times this has put pressure on available parking. We have been working proactively with neighborhood representatives, including a Metro government council member, Burkley Allen, to minimize any issues, and we have instituted telecommuting to minimize any congestion.”
This is an article that gets legs because of its silliness factor. Let’s face it, one of the largest parking operators in the world and they have problems parking their own employees. It makes no sense to the average person on the street. These are the folks a large company would call if they were adding employees and knew there would be a problem with parking.
I have reached out to Central and asked for a comment. I’ll let you know.
I’m not going to try to second guess our friends at CPS. I’m sure they just got caught looking the other way and are now playing catchup ball. I have been there, and its not fun.
JVH
HT: Half a dozen cynics.
