Dallas, Texas—
The bars and restaurants in Uptown Dallas have carved out a niche in city's nightlife. But when it comes to parking, the people who live here say it's more like a nightmare.At night, the parking is especially tricky around the areas of State, Allen, and Thomas streets.
"It's usually always full there's always people parked actually behind our gate illegally in the fire zones", said resident Brittani Luecke.
The area is zoned for mixed parking meaning both businesses and residents can use the streets for parking.
But lately, homeowners have been allowed to get some spots on the streets designated for their use only... that doesn't sit well with the businesses.
“Really, this is a retail street in a retail district. What I don't really understand is how we can have residential only parking on a retail street. It's that simple", said business owner Russell Hayward.
Hayward owns TABC Restaurant and has been here 17 years -- before many of the residential buildings. He says this is costing him money and customers.
"I've had one of my loyal customers challenge me and argue with me and yell at me why am I allowing this to happen because they want to come and use our business and they can't park anywhere", Hayward says.
Because many customers now have to park so far away nearby neighborhoods are now seeing a parking crunch.
"The desirability of this neighborhood is the walkability of it. So if these businesses cannot prosper the property value of the entire place goes down", said Todd Bailey.
They all agree more parking is needed but finding it is the challenge.
"I think there needs to be a parking garage; underground parking or some type of resident parking tax for us. It's just frustrating to live here and to not have anywhere to park", Luecke said.
