Downtown Starkville has recently developed some major parking problems that may have started with the opening of The Blue Marlin restaurant. The Blue Marlin, which was originally located in Oxford, recently moved to Starkville due to the noise ordinance in Oxford that would not allow the restaurant and bar to have live music outside. Currently, there is no such law that would prevent live music from being played outside in Starkville.
Students say that The Blue Marlin is a great place to go eat and have fun, but is it causing problems for the surrounding businesses?
Some of the nearby businesses commented on the matter.
“We at the Little Dooey welcome any and all new businesses to Starkville. We would like to work with any and all of the new businesses that have and will move into the area,” Barry Wood, general manager of The Little Dooey, said.
“There is very little parking available. As of two weeks ago, our lot was completely covered with vehicles, and we only had six people in the restaurant.
Therefore, our customers started complaining that they could not park,” Wood said.
“For the first time, because of this problem, we had to put up no parking signs for non-customers,” Wood added.
“These signs were not effective, so we had to put up signs that say that cars will be towed for non-customers of The Little Dooey,” Wood said. “And, in the end, a few cars did end up being towed.”
“We at The Little Dooey are very hopeful that a working solution may come up for the Blue Marlin. We welcome them to Starkville and to our area,” Wood said.
The Little Dooey’s was not the only business that was having problems.
Bank 1st had to put up no parking signs as of one week ago.
“We had to put up ‘No Parking ‘signs for three main reasons,” Steve Taylor, president of Bank First, said.
“Every morning there would be an immense amount of trash left on the ground from the night before. Also, The Blue Marlin customers were parking under the canopy so that our customers could not use the night deposit or the ATM. All the loitering that was taking place outside the bank at night made some of the customers feel unsafe.”
“We want our customers to be able to conduct business in the manner that they always have. In order for it to be this way, we had to put up the ‘No Parking’ signs for non-customers,” Taylor said.
“This neighborhood was not prepared for such a large crowd; there is no extra parking,” Taylor said.
“The Blue Marlin is beneficial to the students in allowing them to have a place to go,” Taylor added.
“We hope that they do well in their business and will be able to find a solution to their problem.”
There were also people parking at the fire department.
“For the first two or three days that The Blue Marlin was open, we had a few problems,” Chief Grathom of the Fire Department, said. “We placed barricades in the entrances and put up ‘Tow Away Zone’ signs. Since then, we have had no more problems.”
City Bagel CafZ had a few problems at first, but found a solution.
“A big issue that we had to deal with is the liability of our parking lot,” an employee of the City Bagel CafZ that did not want her name stated said.
“Every business is responsible for what happens on their lot. We didn’t want to be responsible for someone else’s customers.”
“We also had a problem with trash on the lot in the mornings when we opened,” she said.
“At first, we posted signs. That didn’t work, so we had to chain off the parking lot to prevent non-customers from parking,” she said. “There is plenty of parking on the side of the street for The Blue Marlin’s customers.”
The Starkville Police Department has also been involved in the parking problems.
“We understand that there is a limited amount of parking. That is why we try to warn people before issuing tickets or towing cars,” David Lindley, Chief of the Starkville Police Department, said.
“We had a problem with a few cars that were blocking the fire department exits. In the end, we did issue and few tickets, and a few cars had to be towed,” said Lindley.
Parking problem evolved from an inaccurate boundary map.
“The owner did not have an accurate boundary map to begin with, so when he 1st bought the property, he was expecting more space for parking. So, this resulted in inadequate parking space,” Mayor Mack Rutledge, said.
“The parking problem is a private issue that is up to the owner of the Blue Marlin to resolve,” Rutledge said.
Originally, this building was a flower shop. There are only six spaces available at the front of the building for customers.
“There is a law in Starkville that states that if renovation of a building exceeds 50% of the total value of the building, then that building had to be reviewed by the city,” Rutledge said. “When it is reviewed, the city will determine how many parking spaces are needed to supply adequate parking for that business. The Blue Marlin’s renovation was less than 50%, therefore it was not reviewed.”
So, the Blue Marlin contains the same amount of parking that was used when the building was a flower shop.
“There’s not a lot of parking available in this area, so anytime I am in this area of downtown Starkville, I park on the street and walk to wherever it is that I am going,” Matt McCrary, student at MSU, said.
This is what the General Manager of the Blue Marlin had to say about the parking problems in downtown Starkville.
“We don’t want our customers to receive any tickets or have their vehicles towed, so we want to stress that customers should not park on the lots of the nearby businesses,” Justin Vega, General Manager of the Blue Marlin, said. “There is a lot of space on the street available for customers, and we hope in the future that they will use this area to park.”
“We’re just trying to run a business; we’re not trying to make anyone mad or step on anyone’s toes,” Vega said.