New Safeway Store Parking Issue

From Amiga Tech:

I'm going to use real names and places here because a) I don't and likely never will work anywhere affiliated with Safeway, b) all this is perfectly public and trivially verifiable information, and c) only by being specific is it likely to make any sense at all.  

I'll make it as short as I can...  Safeway, in Rockridge (an area of Oakland, California, USA) has a plan to build a new store.  As part of the deal with the neighborhood (local activists have been very vocal about objecting to Safeway's plans), they have agreed to provide parking on the roof of their new store, with the following interesting caveats:  1) It's open to all, not just Safeway customers, for two hours, 2) During busy times, they may limit parking to one hour, 3) Safeway will provide and pay for 'residential permit parking only' areas everywhere within two blocks that doesn't have such permit parking already, and 4) During busy times, they will not permit employee parking there.

Question: Where do the employees park, then?

Not within two blocks, that's for sure.  As far as I can tell from the news reports on the matter, nobody paid the the slightest attention to where the retail slaves have to park.  Few employees of Safeway are likely to live in Rockridge - It is not an inexpensive area to live (I don't live there).  Residential permit-only parking either entirely forbids or stringently limits parking time of cars that do not have such a permit, and they're only available to residents of that area.  

Good luck...

--AmigaTech

Comments

[The Last Archimedean]

I used to live near there [about 2 miles away]. I think the best thing the employees could do is take a bus. As I recall, there's one that drops you off within a couple of blocks of there.

[photoslave]

If there is no employee parking within a block or two, they will be hard up for employees. Then they will realize that they need to set aside some parking. The malls I worked at only restricted employee parking during the holiday rush. And at least we were still allowed to park in the mall lot.

[KattyBitch]

I'm sure they won't really enforce employee parking restrictions and most of the people I know who live in the Bay Area, even those with cars, take advantage of the bus system and BART.

[The Kid]

The second I read "cars on the roof", I thought of the Elliot Lake, Ontario mall collapse. The roof, which had cars on it, collapsed, killing 22 people. The strongest image of it all was a bunch of cars surrounded by the rubble. It was rumoured one of the cars fell on a person, killing them, but I'm not sure if that's true.

[Bridget]

Rockridge BART station. If working later shifts, realize that residential parking is only enforced during the day, usually from 8am to 6 pm.

[shoehaven]

@ The Kid,

There were 2 women who died in the accident, not 22.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2012/06/27/19924726.html

[AmigaTech]

I thought about putting in remarks about how that particular Safeway is quite accessible by public transit, including the not-too-far-away BART station, but I left it out to make the post shorter.

Somehow I don't think that solves the problem, though. If it were so readily accessible, why would it need parking at all?

Oddly enough, I heard a clerk there commenting about how they had worked in another store with rooftop parking and it bothered them, having all those cars overhead.

--AT

[AmigaTech]

Another remark:

No, they probably won't enforce the parking restrictions. Until the one day that they do, and everyone gets their car towed away (been there, barely dodged that).

--AT