Early this Spring, this website brought to light the details behind the new parking deck being built next to our baseball stadium in downtown Fayetteville.  Most importantly, I broke the news that the public would not get to use any of the spaces.  Rather, the spaces in our deck were contractually reserved for Prince Charles Holdings, LLC, our new “business partners.”  In short, Fayetteville is paying 15 million dollars for a parking deck its citizens cannot use so that rich investors will build a hotel in downtown Fayetteville.

The news caused a stir.  City Manager Doug Hewitt went on the radio and criticized my findings.  Other interested parties came out of the woodwork in defense of the deal, but they couldn’t kill the story.  The Fayetteville Observer got in the mix and began asking questions.

A few weeks later, in response, the mayor and the city council did what any smart municipal government does when it can’t answer hard questions and needs to buy time:  order a study!

Yes, we’ve hired some “parking professional” to spend our tax dollars to tell us that when you take away 800 parking spaces from a growing downtown and increase demand by building a stadium, your citizens might not have a place to park.  The “big reveal” of the results of the study is Monday night.

Can’t wait.