Parking

[TCD]

Mike, it does not have to be a remote area. You just have to pick an area with plenty of parking.

There used to be only one category of "limited parking": Small lots on private land or land without nearby road shoulders. So the parking was always limited at Elk Lake and the Garden, and to some extent ADK Loj (big lot, but popular area).

Now there is a new category: Places where there was plenty of parking, but the state has decided to destroy the parking. So far, this includes Giant (Roaring Brook) and Cascade. Plans include expanding this idiocy to Chapel Pond.

But there's still plenty of road shoulder parking in other areas.

 

[ADKen47]

Here's where we'll get to see the serpent eating its own tail. King Andy will keep running his stupid [email protected] TV ad campaigns in NY (downstate), PA, NJ, and elsewhere to get people to visit the ADK, while at the same time his own DEC/State Police have to deal with parking issues due to "overcrowding" in the High Peaks. The new slogan should be "Visit the ADK! You'll be able to see lots of pristine wilderness during all those miles of driving around looking for a place to park!" Hey, at least with parking the way it has previously been allowed, it isolated the majority of the trail damage to just a few peaks.

Oh, and since when is parking a state issue to control and not a municipality issue anyway? Did these towns contact the governor's office and ask for help because they can't deal with issue on their own, or is this just another heavy handed NYS initiative?

 

[TCD]

Towns (like my Town of Keene) are the victims here. Tons of tourists are invited to visit, but the State does nothing to support it.
>Local volunteers do trail work and SAR to the extent they can.
>The Town and its local businesses fund the (now state mandated) handicap accessible portapotties at the trail heads (not a penny from the State for those).
>The Town has to put up with overflow parking, and sometimes frustrated visitors parking on lawns and in driveways.
>The Town funds the parking lot shuttle (not a penny from the State).

This has been a problem for the towns for several years, and the State provides no help.

The towns certainly did not request this most recent "intervention" which is making the situation sharply worse. This is a State initiative.

 

[Tom Rankin]

Does the Town make a profit from the shuttle?

 

[TCD]

No. The fees for parking at the Garden, and for the shuttle, are barely enough to keep the program running. On the bright side, Keene was able (finally) to get a more reliable bus this year. Until this year, the program was using an ancient bus that was in the shop as often as it was on the road. This program runs on a shoestring, and barely breaks even.