- Grand Street is a narrow one-way street across from the Oshkosh YMCA
- Until last week, you were allowed to park in the street.
- The old rules made it difficult for homeowners and EMS vehicles to drive through the area.
After decades of push from neighbors, the Oshkosh City Council bans street parking on Grand Street between Merritt and Hudson Avenues.
Chris Steinike and Jeff Ellman are neighbors– they’ve both lived on Grand Street for years.
They say they’ve always had to navigate a stressful parking situation.
“If you have a car there, and you’re trying to back out, you can’t,” Ellman says. “I have a handicap wife, so I've had some emergencies, where I've had to run her to the hospital and stuff, and had a heck of a time just backing out of my driveway.”
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More than homeowners, Clarity Care, a local non-profit, has a group home for adults with intellectual disabilities on Grand Street.
Valerie Adamski, residential director for Clarity Care, says her members like to leave the group home often, either to attend community events or go to their jobs.
Leaving, however, can be difficult on Grand Street.
“With that street being so narrow, sometimes it can get very congested,” Adamski says.
More than daily drives, the congested street can be a hazard in emergency situations.
“When we do call an ambulance, sometimes they’ll have to park a street down, which can take them more time to get to the program and help our members,” Adamski says.
Historically, parking on the street has been allowed on Grand Street– until Steinike brought the issue to the City.
He spoke with the transportation committee and the City Council.
“It took way too long, I feel like it shouldn’t have been an issue at all,” Steinike says.
The
Oshkosh City Council banned street parking between Merritt and Hudson Avenues at the meeting last week.
“If we made this road today, there’s no way we’d allow parking on it,” councilor Karl Buelow says.
At least one neighbor opposed the decision, speaking at the council meeting, saying he doesn’t have enough driveway space.
But for the majority of the residents on the street, this decision is a long time coming.
“This is something we’ve been trying to do for, gosh, twenty years,” Ellman says. “But this time council listened.”
Buelow says he expects City staff to work with those residents without driveway space to find a solution to their now-limited parking.
