Letter from Paula DiPerna

Trolleys Must Be Better Utilized

We are again facing the perennial issue—what to do about parking in Cooperstown during the summer, as the recent Village Board meeting attests. The Town of Otsego Court is processing thousands of parking citations—in what way is such a processing headache a good use of time and money, even if revenue is returned?

We all know there are too many cars trying to fit into too little space and the law of physics declares this problem will never go away by itself.

Perhaps it would be wise to upgrade the signage directing visitors to trolley lots, making the signs more visually attractive and forceful so that trolley parking doesn’t seem so optional. I see many empty trolleys on the streets circling around, and yet I can almost never find a parking spot in the village in July and August. There’s always a salad of out-of-state license plates in front of the post office, and those cars almost always overstay, by my personal humble survey, the free 15 minutes, and I see many families using their parked cars like a picnic home base while they come and go to the HOF and baseball shops. We can never have enough enforcement staff to keep those vehicles moving, and a parking ticket fear does not seem to deter, given the climbing numbers of parking citations plaguing the Town of Otsego Court.

Let’s use the trolley system more effectively. Maybe rebrand it as part of our “village parking system” nearly a parking must, accompanied by some “shopping points” or some other incentive? In the end, Cooperstown will have to simply require parking in the trolley lots. Plus, as has been said hundreds of times, if visitors more used the trolleys, residents could more use Main Street.

Gradually the trolley system has become too easy for visitors to diss or overlook. Let’s revitalize our trolley system as the only lasting solution.

Paula DiPerna
Cooperstown