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Parking near the Times Union Center


jessefeffer
Joined: Jan 30, 2008
Posts: 184
Ok. Maybe it was 100% our fault but for me and many others it was a poorly run operation.
We spent the night in Oneonta to shorten legs of the trip and arrived at the Grand St. surface lot near the TUC at 9:41 only to be told it was now exclusively for state workers even though ~30% of the spaces were empty. This is the lot I had used in 2016 and 2018.

The attendants/APA workers sitting in a white pickup directed me to the p1 complex which ended up being full and was told by the attendant there to follow he black vehicle ahead of me which he had just redirected. The next lot was full and I was told to follow the white car ahead of me to the next available garage which ended up being an underground delivery depot. I sat and waited there as the white car was talking with that attendant and after 5 minutes or so I got out to see what was what. I was angered by the sum of these difficulties and ended up having to apologize to the attendant (actually a state trooper who I thanked for his service--something I promised to do with the next trooper I spoke with post Nick Clark--regardless of circumstances.) He actually got on the phone to try to help and directed us to what I think ended up being the Green/Hudson ramp. I found a line of cars entering there and had to drive to the top only to find 20 or so cars waiting to do 3 pt turns to head back out as it was full too.


I finally gave up and drove to Colonie Center to park (it was near my hotel) and rode the bus downtown. In my opinion, as the host city for the tournament, the APA should do more to help accommodate the event traffic at the venue. Maybe dedicated people directing to available parking, some communication between lot attendants and or maybe some special overflow parking areas with shuttle service to the TUC ala the Buffalo Bills method of handling training camp visitors at SJF. I realize that bringing thousands of event spectators downtown on a normal,busy workday in the NYS Capital is bound to create problems but they should know that too. I saw no evidence that any attempt was made to do anything special to mange this.

I see on the Albany parking map references to the Broadway and McCarty shuttle lots. I am not sure if these are meant for TUC event patrons, are/were normally filled up or are not a good idea for some other reason but these may have been the answer to the problem if ANY OF THE ALBANY PARKING AUTHORITY ATTENDANTS would have directed me there. I then heard the tournament is there for two more years. Wonderful. It would be nice if the city acted like they were actually pleased to host it. Any comments are welcome.


subway101
Joined: Jan 17, 2013
Posts: 70
This has been posted over the years. No one cares. They have your cash for the tickets. The rest is your problem.....Hope you enjoyed it otherwise.


LImarty
Joined: Nov 28, 2003
Posts: 1130
WHY ???

Two streets down there is a lot - NEVER had a problem parking....plus, a hotel lot..and street parking.


quickpick
Joined: Jan 9, 2015
Posts: 284
I like the venue but that city is a dump. Parking is difficult if you’re not staying at a hotel nearby. Oh yeah, and this happened a block away from the Hilton on Friday night.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.news10.com/amp/news/local-news/albany-pd-responding-to-reported-stabbing-at-concert/1802783740


jessefeffer
Joined: Jan 30, 2008
Posts: 184
LImarty wrote:
WHY ???

Two streets down there is a lot - NEVER had a problem parking....plus, a hotel lot..and street parking.



Saw metered spaces that were pay by phone which I am not inclined to do and did not stop to see the details. Not sure about the lot you speak of if different than the ones I mentioned. Like I said, it may have been my fault for not knowing to be there earlier. I did see some event lots for $20 which had no cars going in nor an obvious attendant. It was 3 nights stay coming from 360 miles away. 1st and 3rd in Oneonta and the 2nd in Colonie Center. The bus option from there actually worked ok. The 905 took about 25 minutes and dropped us off two blocks away from the TUC. The kids saw that as an adventure. Took the 1 bus back on Saturday night. The driver told a rider to clean up his language because there were kids on board. We talked Bills/Giants and college hoops. He is a Tar Heel fan since attending a Sam Perkins camp in his youth. I did not know Perkins was from the Albany area, Latham as I just googled. I always assumed it was closer to NYC.


Thus, much more pleasant dealing with CDTA drivers than APA attendants.


On the related note, 60+ SUNY campuses and none with facilities capable of hosting this?


fivecountfor3
Joined: Feb 14, 2014
Posts: 37
Parking garage was like 12.00 and lot was 10.00 on sat. across the street
we had no issues


jessefeffer
Joined: Jan 30, 2008
Posts: 184
I never thought Saturday would be an issue with it being a non workday. My kids just wanted to ride the bus again. The only issue was on Friday, which makes sense, thus my complaint about the apparent lack of any APA effort to deal with extra parking demands on a workday with a major event being held at the TUC. I wonder what effort they make when they have hosted NCAA regionals. I'd bet it's better.

I did find a newspaper article about the issue from 2013. I am not sure if all the information is operative still, but there were options mentioned there that might have helped.

https://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/Grappling-with-where-to-park-4298891.php


wrestlinggrandpa
Joined: Mar 17, 2014
Posts: 43
fivecountfor3 wrote:
Parking garage was like 12.00 and lot was 10.00 on sat. across the street
we had no issues


I believe you are talking about the garage with an entrance on Beaver Street. It was only $8 on Friday and Sat if you got there early in the morning, which we did. I noticed it was up to $12 when we left.
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