Parking and other fish to fry

The short version:
RantWoman THINKS there should be enough people with the right combination of experience and perspectives in the picture to solve the problem but RantWoman would have liked maybe to hear a tiny bit more about discernment in Business Meeting. More on that in a moment.

RantWoman thinks it would be valuable for everyone in Meeting who qualifies for a Disabled Parking Permit to have one and to display it when parked in Meeting's parking lot, regardless of whether parked in one of our designated handicapped spots or just affirming some count of how many people actually would use a disabled parking spot if we had enough for everyone who needs it.

RantWoman would LIKE to get to a point where there was some kind of announcement like "We know that typically 3-5 people who have disabled parking permits need to park in our lot on Sundays. If you do not see that many disabled permits when you are parking, please assume that permit holders have not all arrived and plase consider finding another place to park." Yes, RantWoman really WOULD say that.

Our parking lot is not gigantic. RantWoman can imagine people with severe mobility limitations finding it hard to walk from the parking lot to various options for getting to the front door of Meeting, but RantWoman also thinks there are more people who qualify for Disabled Parking placards than the number of disabled parking places and definitely wants people with disabled placards to have priority.

RantWoman thinks it would be valuable to begin the practice of asking people who have permits to display them now while there is a monster construction project going on next door. Apparently monster construction project will offer Meeting options for using some of its parking spaces after the new building is completed. RantWoman thinks it would be valuable to think about needs for disabled parking but also about other needs: medical personnel on call, people having family emergencies, other reasons Friends might particularly feel a need to park close if spaces were available. RantWoman would be interested to know whether any of these threads already fit into the discernment.

RantWoman hopes that people she can think of who almost certainly qualify already have permits but can imagine reluctance in a few case, including one Friend on RantWoman's how many blind people are there around here list. . RantWoman realizes she herself should think  about it for one reason only: RantWoman HATES parking garages and tries every way she knows how to minimize interactions with them. One way to do that would be to get herself a disabled parking permit. RantWoman is still not motivated enough to do that. In fact, RantWoman is not even sure she wants another dang thing to carry around in one of her RantWoman bags. Furthermore, RantWoman definitely would NOT use it at Meeting .

It would occur to RantWoman to increase the number of spots permanently designated as disabled parking. RantWoman thinks this is possible but can also guess at some reasons not to do it but instead maybe to invest in the parking meter covers ror some other form of temporary designation.

The presentation in Business Meeting: an announcement about Care and Counsel and Facilities committees working on parking issues while there is a big construction project going on across the street.

The longer and more elaborated version of RantWoman's comments:
RantWoman has pretty big transportation fish to fry right now so she SHOULD just chill out and let Care and Counsel and Facilities work out a number of things to do with parking at Meeting. RantWoman SHOULD chill out, but this is RantWoman and ability to chill out is not guaranteed. Nor is RantWoman clear that anyone on Care and Counsel will even talk to RantWoman and not just cavil about all the things RantWoman keeps bringing up. More to the point, RantWoman is persistent enough to think that her Meeting's experience and RantWoman's Light on the matters involved just MIGHT MAYBE somehow be of interest to other Meetings.

RantWoman also would not mind hearing from SOMEONE on Care and Counsel that they have interacted with this blog post, but RantWoman's expectations are pretty low about that. Hold that problem in the Light. RantWoman would of course love for her suggestions to be received with thanks for the brilliant insight; RantWoman can handle the possibility that the best anyone can do might be "Thank you for your input" or "huh? We don't understand."

In Business Meeting, one Friend asked for a show of hands for people who get to Meeting by bike or Bus. Yep, taking some strain off the parking lot that way.

Other Friends realized they might sometimes carpool.
Yep, taking some strain off the parking lot that way.

RantWoman brought up disabled parking permits just as an FYI.

But RantWoman did not ask and no one really answered a question about how do we know what is enough as far as disabled parking. Hence RantWoman's leading to write this post.

In an email after Business Meeting, RantWoman got back the question "But, are people really having trouble finding parking?

Well, gee, RantWoman does not know but probably not good to blame space aliens.

Parking is severely constrained.

Sidewalks are even more crunched up than average partly because of construction vehicles driving onto them for various reasons.

Street crossings have been impacted by the building construction and other related road work. By Impacted, RantWoman means large construction barriers and A-boards and miscellaneous new signs

There has been the following announcement in the weekly bulletin for several months.
Getting to Meeting and Parking Suggestions Are you able to walk, take a bus, or ride a bike to Meeting? If so, please consider leaving the car at home. . If you do drive, we encourage you to look for others who might share rides. We ask that people use University of Washington parking lots W40 & 41 (free on Sundays). W41 is located on NE 41st and 11th NE (accessed from NE 41stfrom 12thNE). It is across Roosevelt and 11th NE from the meeting. W40 has only a few spaces and is located due south of the Meeting. (RantWoman) can tell you about busses

So it kind of sounds like people ARE having trouble finding parking. RantWoman though is happy to come and go on the bus!

RantWoman is also TRYING to be happy just to let other people figure things out. As RantWoman already said, RantWoman has bigger transportation fish to fry, but still....