Sorry if this has already been covered, is the Strange Brew downtown closing or maybe moving to another location? If so why? We’ve been going and loving it every time we get to Starkville. I know there’s the other one on hwy 12 but never been in that one.
Strange Brew
- Thread starter TimberBeast
- Start date
Initially there was a lot of griping by that whole development because it was in Spruill's "pay to park to support our businesses zone" but not sure how that worked out or if it had anything to do w/ it. The talking point by them was customers can pay to park and go sit and drink coffee and eat scones at StrangeBrew or go 2 blocks West on Main and park for free and drink coffee and eat scones at 929 Coffee Bar. Early on there were complaints of StrangeBrew customers getting tickets when they went it to just pick up orders even when you are supposed to get a 15 minute grace period. Now the city is going to provide new outdoor seating areas for downtown businesses to attract more customers and that will start the whole argument again.
I was there a couple of weeks ago and had to pay to park to eat dinner at Bulldog Burger (their lot was full) then had to pay to park to get coffee at Strange Brew the next day. In total, it was less than $5, but still a pain in the butt.
And, yes, you are supposed to get 15 min free according to their app. Not sure if you have to register via the app to get the free 15 min, though.
And, yes, you are supposed to get 15 min free according to their app. Not sure if you have to register via the app to get the free 15 min, though.
From what I understand, you have to use the app to get the free 15 minutes. Otherwise, they don't know how long you've actually been there.
I've honestly never understood the complaints. Even after the meters were put in, I've never had an issue stopping somewhere - Strange Brew included - to pick something up. Granted, I'm not trying to stay for an extended period of time but getting in and out somewhere has never been an issue. And I hate paying for parking. But it's just how things work in this day and age. Starkville isn't unique in doing this.
And I don't think you can blame the meters on Spruill. I think it was a Board of Alderman decision. She's just the most prominent on twitter and takes/answers a lot of questions about them. But I don't think putting them in was her call.
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There are no meters in downtown. The gripe is putting an app on your phone that you have to use a credit card with in order to pay to park. Or, there are kiosks located every few blocks where you walk to and input the info about where you parked, how long you think you will be and then swipe your card.
Oh.. ok.. Yeah that sucks. Just install meters and collect money.
There needs to be something done about towing. How about wheel locks instead if the lot is not full? The towing companies can patrol and install and make a very easy $100 to remove them. I think they charge $200 to get your car back after being towed, but that involves more labor, equipment and liability costs. If the lot is full, then I understand the tow.
Paying for parking in Starkville is dumb. But if they didn't charge for parking, I would park across the street every single day leaving a space open for my office. Then if I and other people did this, there wouldn't be any parking for the businesses in the downtown area businesses that do not provide their own parking.
Truth of the matter is.... there needs to be a requirement for back of lot parking for all blocks in the central business district, they all should be pay parking unless you have an apartment. The city should put these in, as developments usually do not control the entire block and do not all build at the same time.
Truth of the matter is.... there needs to be a requirement for back of lot parking for all blocks in the central business district, they all should be pay parking unless you have an apartment. The city should put these in, as developments usually do not control the entire block and do not all build at the same time.
Paying for parking sucks but so does not having parking spots to park in. Parking takes up valuable real estate. Somebody should pay for it. I do think it'd be a nice option if businesses like Strangebrew had the option to lease parking spots for their customers. Just charge them for occupying the space at all times during business hours (or maybe give them some discount if parking is usually available to reflect that the city will be getting more revenue per spot) and let them put up signage. Probably a bad idea to let businesses lease a majority of the spaces in front of their linear frontage, but one out of four would seem fine for those businesses that want it.
The charge for parking ******** needs to go. You will never get the growth in an area doing that ****. Most places that were doing it have realized it and stopped doing it. I'm not paying just to go into a business to spend more money. Spruill can suck it!
I agree. I mean damn, $4 is just ridiculous. Spending $80 going out to eat is one thing, but that 17n $4 is the straw that broke the camels back
I don’t live in Starkville anymore, so I’ll ask. Is it necessary to have pay parking in Starkville in order to stimulate parking turnover and decrease traffic driving around looking for a spot? Has anyone noticed an easier time finding a spot? Is the overall feeling about parking happier than it was before? Honest questions
The main reason for paid parking is to prevent students from parking in those spots and catching the shuttle bus to class.
Why pay $200 for a campus parking pass when you can park at Strange Brew or other business. Get a cup of coffee for the ride on the shuttle bus that will drop you off at the door of McCool Hall. 17 all that riding around on campus looking for a parking spot and walking 1/2 a mile to class in the rain or glorious sunshine.
Why pay $200 for a campus parking pass when you can park at Strange Brew or other business. Get a cup of coffee for the ride on the shuttle bus that will drop you off at the door of McCool Hall. 17 all that riding around on campus looking for a parking spot and walking 1/2 a mile to class in the rain or glorious sunshine.
I've lived and worked across the South and everywhere I've been there have been regulations saying how many parking spaces your business have to have when you build it based on occupants, staff/employees, sq ft, etc. The District and City brought this on themselves by letting businesses like Two Brothers, Commodore Bobs, The Bin, etc build restaurants and bars but not adequate parking lots, its just dumb. Now they whine and say they need turnover in the parking places for customers to come and go so SOME of them asked for this so you had to move the vehicles. Look at the apts along there too, they have to park on the streets which takes up business parking. Not sure what the current answer is for that area but in the past that answer would have been to make Dan Camps developments and like businesses build parking lots based on their businesses needs. Look at Starkville City Hall even, theres a small handfull of covered parking under the building but thats it, otherwise you have to cruise around looking for somewhere. No way a building w/ that many employees should have been built w/out parking lot
You are correct the city council has created this problem by allowing developers to build these apartment complexes without requiring additional parking. From my observations with Starkville since I graduated back in the mid 2000's is the city can not look more than one year into the future. I fell like there should have been some sort of planning for parking demand down University Drive. It seems like they should have imposed some sort of tax on these appartment complexes in order to build a communal paid parking garage near the "midtown" area.
Pretty much. Every successful area has this problem though. Parking spots become valuable land, and somebodys gotta pay, and no one wants to. That the "free market" approach doesn't work at all for this one usually makes it worse in America.
For Starkville, I would suggest trying to create a communal parking area in the right spot(s). Paid street parking can be part of a solution, but I would suggest dropping the charge in certain off season weeks. Also, working out comped parking for business patrons would be good. Would prevent free load parking but not charge temporary parkers using a business.
You're not going to get nice walkable areas with lots of parking requirements. Anybody that wants parking places for their business can create them for enough money.
Been wanting to ask this for a long time. Is Spruil related to the CPA Mr. Spruil who had the CPA firm of Spruil, Simmons, and Johnson in the early seventies? And yes, it was the same Mr. Simmons who taught accounting classes in Bowen Hall. Need an old timer to answer this I guess. Thanks for your understanding.
Yeah. Starkville would be much better off without Two Bros, Comm Bobs and the Bin where they are******.
Nah, simply make it 30min/1HR parking and ticket/tow their asses. Start dropping a boot on those 17rs and they'll stop. Many smaller cities have gotten away from it. People don't want to pay to park or walk a long way to place. But more are becoming willing to walk.
This is the way it's done everywhere now. And there are only a few blocks in downtown, so if there is more than one kiosk they should be pretty convenient.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a group who fight every bit of progress they way that a portion of the Starkville populace seems to fight it.
Is there not a good spot to build a 5 or 6 floor parking garage centrally located ? Something like most hospitals have ? Maybe that could help out all the businesses, the campus snd the visitors
Not enough demand to justify the cost.
Maybe the university could do one, partnered with a shuttle and the city. Students can park there in the day with shuttle pick up right at it (free with parking decal), but can't park there after say 5 pm, and it becomes paid parking for local business.
Go get a grant and do it Spruil/MSU.
ETA: and put a rooftop bar on it too.
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MSU should build an on campus entertainment district and lease space to bars/restaurants and tell Spruill and the city to suck it. Starkville is Ackerman without MSU
We used to go to Bulldog Burger all the time but since this parking app BS we have quit going. There's too many other options. I really don't mind paying for parking but I'm not putting another damn app on my phone and giving my credit card to god knows who.
So you have to have an app to park downtown or in the cotton district area? I didn’t even know that, haven’t been up there since the fall. What a terrible idea.
To park in public parking in The Cotton District you do. Bulldog Birger has their own private parking lot that holds maybe 10-12 cars but you can forget that anytime around mealtimes. I’m not sure about downtown, I don’t think it extends that far, yet. We ate at Tyler recently and I didn’t pay to park but maybe I was supposed to. There’s a reason that every small town in America did away with parking meters, I’m not sure what the reason was but I’d think it applies here as well.
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