STADIUM PARKING
PNC Field. (Photo: Times Tribune)
So now people around here are complaining about paying for parking at PNC Field. I remember the outrage when the Red Barons asked for a parking fee. Jesus the tickets were only 4 bucks for the bleachers. But that’s the Lu and the Lac! Here’s what’s wrong with the current parking request. No one seems to think that anything will get done. When the Barons had a parking fee, some kid or geezer took the money and it being run by Lackawanna County….no one knows where that money went. There was never a line item or an idea of how much was made and therefore the renovation was never earmarked.
Then there was an era of free parking but now the Stadium wants a fee for parking again. I’m fine with it. Two bucks for a Triple A game is reasonable. A bargain.
But I would like to see the money dedicated to the improvement of the lot. Maybe as the season goes on, there could be a bat with a goal attached to it so the people can see how far they are away from the goal of getting the lot fixed.
In the meantime what should have been an easy fee as part of a professional minor league franchise is being debated and resisted…for the following reasons:
1. It was never done right in the first place.
2. There was never any consistency of purpose.
But for right now, let’s PLAY BALL! And pay the money but ask for an accounting of how the parking lot is coming along as the season goes on.
LEIGHTON AND “THE VISITORS”
Wilkes Barre Mayor Tom Leighton. (Photo: Citizen's Voice).
I am so glad Mayor Tom Leighton spoke about landlords and visitors in his remarks the other day on multiple shootings in the city. If you look at the pattern of the crimes they have the following in common. 1. They involve guns.
2. They involve for the most part a transient portion of the population.
3. They end in deaths and then grieving friends and families are left wondering what went wrong.
For the answer to number 3, see numbers 1 and 2.
I have lived in the city for 33 years. During that time I have had outside visitors staying at my house. They had the following things in common:
1. They never carried a gun.
2. We knew where they came from, where they were while in Wilkes Barre and when they were going back.
3. They went home alive and returned once more alive to visit.
For the answer to why number 3 worked, see numbers 1 and 2.