The Athens Inquisition

Court Street questions answered

by Joe Atkinson
THE POST

The idea of closing Court Street between the hours of 7 p.m. and 4 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights first surfaced at the March 6 Athens City Council meeting. Wednesday, The Post sat down with Council Streets and Recreation Committee Chairman Gary Van Meter to find out where the idea stands three weeks after its proposal.

POST: The idea of closing Court Street, while still just an idea, has definitely become a hot topic in Athens the past few weeks. What's the status of the proposal now?

VAN METER: It's just been an idea that's been talked about. We decided that we'd rather go ahead and get results from the traffic study back before we even consider the idea. We want to see how feasible it is traffic-wise. There was talk about trying it with just a few weekends or something like that. But I think that, without having the proper signage, coordination of the lights, synchronization - without that type of thing - you'd just be setting it up to fail. So I think we need to wait for the traffic study. And the traffic study is not just to look at the idea of closing Court Street; it's to look at the whole traffic situation around Athens

POST: When are you expecting the results of that traffic study, and what do you expect it to tell you?

VAN METER: They have already taken the counts and everything, where they put out the cables on the street and count cars and everything. What they're doing now is analyzing all that data and making recommendations. I don't think we will see anything from them until probably the first of June.

POST: I know that the possibility of trying it out over the summer has come up. Is that, indeed, a possibility, or would Council rather wait until the students are here to give the idea a shot?

VAN METER: There's a possibility we would try it over the summer. There are other things to look at aside from what happens on a Saturday evening. We could see how the traffic does flow, give business owners a chance to get used to it, and see how it would help their business.

One thing that does have me concerned, though, is that we will lose 60 parking places on Court Street. Right now, we are looking at the parking garage and doing renovations to it. I'm concerned that, if we have to close some levels on the parking garage, we would lose even more parking. So I don't know how good the timing is if you had the two running together.

POST: What do you see as the reason behind the proposal?

VAN METER: The idea was presented by the chief of police. The idea that we could create a situation Uptown that might ease people being grouped together. A lot of times, when people are grouped together, anxieties do rise and things do happen. But the idea wasn't proposed as any kind of surrender to students who want to party. I think his idea was that he would have fewer problems Uptown if this was instituted. I also think that it would free up vehicles so that they would be able to patrol neighborhoods.

POST: Have you received any feedback from businesses or the general population in regards to this idea?

VAN METER: I've solicited a few responses from people, and I've actually had two telephone calls about the idea. One was strongly supportive of it. The other phone call was a property owner Uptown who was against it if we were only going to do it in the evenings. He said, if we were going to do it full-time, then he was in favor of it. But I think that's a pretty remote possibility.

POST: So is there any way I can get you to give your opinion on the issue at this point?

VAN METER: I have really tried to keep an open mind about it. I think it's an intriguing idea. I'm not against trying the idea, but I am against trying it without trying it properly. I really could kind of go either way, but I do think the idea has some merit and is worth looking at.