McEUEN: Park, not parking

After attending the meeting Thursday regarding the current status of McEuen, these are the points that stood out:

• As Doug Eastwood stated, “It needs to be a park.” Yes, McEuen was to become a park with a wonderful variety of activities and special venues for the most people…and limited to $14 million.

• However, more than one third of the current price tag is going for about 200 parking spaces to be placed under Front Street. (nearing $7,000,000)

• The shortfall announced Thursday is now ranging between $4,271,912 and $3,854,666.

• The solution is to save almost $7 million by eliminating the parking under Front. (80 of those 200 planned spaces could be placed on the south side of Front, providing parking going both east and west, not just west, as currently designed. Then the LCDC can go ahead with the plans for a parking garage on Lakeside, providing more foot traffic to businesses on that side of downtown, as their funds will not be exhausted.)

• All the shortfall would be covered, an LID would not be necessary, and, very important to the citizens of this area, special touches could still be done with a unique, Coeur d’Alene theme.

I believe our miracle is about to occur. Please help.

LINDA WOLOVICH

Coeur d’Alene