Customer perspective of Cherry Creek Mall parking fees

I have lived in the area and shopped at the Cherry Creek Mall since it’s opening. The day paid parking began, two friends and I were having our usual meet-for-coffee-solve-the-world’s-problems outside of Nordstrom’s. Aware of the new one-hour free parking limit, after 45 minutes of conversation I started glancing at my watch for timing and made sure I still had the ticket to note what time I had entered. As I was getting up to leave, one of my friends had forgotten something he felt important to tell me. Needless to say, I was 3 minutes over the time when I went to the ticket kiosk and had to pay $3. I found it infuriating … the cost of my cappuccino had now gone up by $3, or that’s how it felt.

My friends like to meet at the mall for coffee as it is close to their homes and allows them to do some errands while they are there. On bad weather days, we would go early in the morning and walk to get our exercise as others did as well then we would enjoy a coffee and roll at one of the coffee kiosks. We no longer do that. We walk by ourselves and go have our coffee at Whole Foods.

My girlfriends and I used to love to spend hours at the mall, walking from one end to the other, finding gifts for upcoming birthdays or shopping for shoes and clothing. We would have lunch in the Nordstrom Cafe or the California Pizza Kitchen. The introduction of paid parking has deterred us. If the intent is truly to keep out non-shoppers’from parking at the mall, why not start charging after the first 3 or even 4 hours?

The Cherry Creek Mall has lost some business since paid parking. The [recent] positive spin in ... by Jennifer Turner seems more like a marketing ploy for the mall that any true feelings shared by its regular customers. In a sense they are right: now you just go there, ... you know exactly what you want, and you probably buy a little less. Sometimes finding what you want requires quite a bit of time and effort.

Claire Gemme

The dog park bandwagon

Before the City and County of Denver jumps on the bandwagon to provide dog parks for urban residents, they may want to sit down and have a conversation with the folks at Jefferson County Open Space concerning their experience with the Elk Meadow Dog Park. It took volunteers and county workers two weeks to collect 500 pounds of dog feces from [that] park. The land was compacted and devoid of vegetation to the point it may well take years to restore, all at taxpayer expense.

One thing for certain, our people population in the metro area has exploded. Open space is at a premium, and they’re not making any more of it. To carve out acreage in city parks for the sole use of dogs is absurd and a poor use of precious resources. The need for dog parks is best served by private enterprise, not the taxpayer. One makes a choice to own a dog in an urban area and [must] accept the fact that resources for free-running dogs are limited.

Dogs are not denied access to our parks. They are required to be leashed. And, considering most dogs are running on retractable leashes often 40 to 50 feet in front of the owner, I would say that’s a pretty good dog’s life.

Trish Kinkel