Parking

 I do not know what could be done about it but downtown Carbondale has way too much parking, at least visible parking. Parking on the south end of the Strip is hidden behind the buildings on the east side of the street but the further north you go on South Illinois, the fewer storefronts and more parking there is. There is the huge parking lot shared by FirstMid Bank and Bombay Olive, the Big Chill parking lot and the Amtrak parking lot. That much space without businesses really keeps people from walking north on the street. No one wants to walk a block or more past nothing but empty parking spaces.

If I remember correctly, at one time the FirstMid parking lot was a large grassy space, part of the hospital grounds that used to occupy the space but the hospital moved up to West Main and the greensward was paved over partially to keep students from hanging out there. However that was before my time, I could have heard wrong and it could have been done for other reasons. If you have lived here and remember back 40+ years, please let me know.