Seems like Cities just loooove to make annoying ordinances.  Can't seem to get enough of them, in fact.  Here's a refreshing notion.  Let's make one that will actually HELP both local businesses and their customers?  That ordinace would...

....Prohibit places of business from planting weeds, shrubs, bloody trees in their parking lots.  Also, the lots would be prohibited from placing cement barriers everywhere - forcing pedestrians out in front of moving automobiles.

This ordinance would....

(1) Increase the number of parking spaces in the lots, providing an increased asset to the business - especially at peak shopping periods.

(2) Make the lots a safer place for customers walking to and from their rigs.

Recently, I, myself was almost thumped by a car in the Costco parking lot.  Shrubs and a tree prohibited me from seeing an oncoming sedan, until I had just about stepped in front of it.   Lately, our parking lots are getting awful cutesy....but inefficient, frustrating, and dangerous.

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An ascendant man, living in a degenerate age, MUST, by definition, live in contradistinction to his times.

Yunno, Hunter, this situation is soo inconveniant, dangerous, and costly......the problem DOES have a City government smell to it - doesn't it?  I was wondering if this wasn't exactly the case.  Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

I would hate to think that Retailers would be wanting to freely spend their hard earned dollars making their lots into absurdities, hostile to their customers.

Then the solution to the problem is obvious....we need to kill these ordinances!   

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An ascendant man, living in a degenerate age, MUST, by definition, live in contradistinction to his times.

Hunter:

If you have a retail business in Eugene and want to put in a parking lot to accommodate your customers, the city dictates how much "cutesy" you must have. To get the permits to put in any parking lot you must agree to a certain percentage of landscaping including shrubs, weeds, trees, et all. Most would rather save the money, but the city won't be denied.

I agree -- and it's irritating as can be. Ask the poor folks on River Avenue about the screwing the city is trying to give them. The city is planning a VERY expensive street project, complete with extra-wide sidewalks and mature tree plantings, at a HUGE cost that will immediately be charged to the businesses on the road.

The city also specifies the number of parking places per commercial building, regardless of the use intended by the builder. I drive a pickup and use the facilities over by Gold's Gym at Delta. The parking spaces there are so small my little import truck can't fit. Literally. If I center my truck on the spaces in front of Gold's I can not get in and out of the truck within the space allotted. In fact, my wife drove a Volkswagen, and the spaces were too small for her too, unless there was a motorcycle in the next space or the driver of the neighboring car left extra room. It's awful political AND civil engineering...

At the aforementioned Costco parking lot a couple daze ago.  When we go to leave, there's the sound of an ambulance.  Yup, I see an individual down near where the parking lot access is with  crowd gathering around.  Have to suspect the bushes claimed another victim.  Hope he/she will be ok.

And to think, our ordanances, require, rather than prohibit, this sort of hazard in our parking lots. 

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An ascendant man, living in a degenerate age, MUST, by definition, live in contradistinction to his times.