Lack of parking vexes borough merchants

By: Purvi Desai
ALLENTOWN — Limited parking in the small downtown business area on Main Street is costing owners some of their customers and much aggravation.
   Denise Fornczek, part-time manager for Weaves, a linens, rugs and accessories shop on South Main Street, said she had a few customers complain during the summer about the lack of parking on the street.
   "They had to go around and around," she said, talking about how they had to keep circling downtown to find parking. "They won’t come back if they keep circling around."
   Nick DiMattia, of DiMattia’s Bar and Restaurant, who has a 35-space parking lot behind his establishment, said he has had continuous problems in the 30 years that he has owned the place.
   "People park here that never come here, and people who come here can’t find parking," he said. "Other people don’t come here because they think it’s too full."
   He said the Allentown Pharmacy has no parking in front or at the back, and people sometimes park within the yellow curb zone.
   Linda Salge, store clerk for the pharmacy, admitted that people do park on the yellow line, but said it is because there is no other option. "We do have a lot of customers that want to run and run out," she said. "Especially for the elderly — there is no handicap parking."
   Ms. Salge, like Ms. Fornczek and Mr. DiMattia, said the pharmacy loses customers due to parking issues.
   "A lot of people do complain on a daily basis," she said of customers.
   Currently, the parking limit on street parking downtown is two hours, and is not restricted to commercial parking, Mayor Stu Fierstein said, adding that property owners can park on the street too.
   "The reason we put up the two-hour parking limit was because people were parking and carpooling so that cars were left there the entire day," he said. "And, therefore, customers of the stores, when they opened, could not get any parking because people had left their cars here."
   Mayor Fierstein said, however, that there is no enforcement of the two-hour limit at present.
   "The purpose of those signs was to discourage parking in the daytime by people that were carpooling," he said. "It was to visually discourage the parking of people who are using that area as a parking purpose."
   It doesn’t mean that since the township does not enforce the code, they don’t make other attempts to regulate the problem, though.
   "We tried to get parallel parking there (on Main Street), but were turned down by both the county and state," the mayor said, adding that the borough requested this quite some time ago.
   He said the borough is currently "in the stage of looking into tying in and expanding the individual parking lots" around the downtown area, located behind certain businesses and homes encompassing the east side between Lakeview and Waker drives.
   "We don’t know if everybody wants to participate," Mayor Fierstein said, adding that borough officials have held one meeting with the affected property owners. "I think the initial response was forward looking and optimistic," he said, adding that the parking created would be free and the number of spots has not yet been designated.
   Borough officials are also trying to sort out some of the parking problems around town ahead of the anticipated Main Street closure for the replacement of the bridge next to the Pete Sensi Park, Mayor Fierstein said.
   In the meantime, before a possible new parking lot is created, there are a couple of places around town where anybody can park, he said.
   "There’s signs (on Main Street) that direct you to the Church Street parking lot," Mayor Fierstein said, adding that the 35-space lot is diagonally across from the Italian restaurant La Piazza. Another parking area is the one located at the Pete Sensi Park, which can accommodate 10 vehicles, he said.
   Mayor Fierstein said that at present, both lots are "under utilized."
   Addressing the issue of limited handicap accessibility on Main Street, which Ms. Salge said is a problem for the pharmacy customer, Mayor Fierstein said there are some options available.
   "We do have the intersection aprons and we do have the handicap ramp on South Main Street," he said. "In order to meet the handicap parking regulation, we need to meet certain specifications. When we looked into it before, the handicap spot would stick out (on the street)."
   Ms. Fornczek said that it is tough for people who are disabled to park far and then walk to her store, while Mr. DiMattia said he has never enforced parking in his own 35-space lot, because he doesn’t like to do so. He said he only talks to rowdy young kids who park in his lot and then walk over to chat with the gas station owner next door.
   "They can park over there," Mr. DiMattia said.
   He said Main Street is normally emptied of cars after 5 p.m. and that people should then park on the street instead of his parking lot. Mr. DiMattia said he does not complain to anybody about his establishment’s parking problems and understands that the town is a small one.
   "That’s how small towns are," he said, adding that the township cannot also prevent residents from parking on Main Street, because they live here. "There’s not too much they can do."
   Postmaster Joe Devonshire said he too gets complaints about parking periodically. He said it would be "very nice" if the post office got its own parking lot, or even one for the employees.
   "Three quarters of the employees park behind the building," he said. "The remaining park out on the street. It’s a small town, and you park where you can."