Letter: Trade show parking irritates reader

Monday, Jan. 31, 2000 | 9:40 a.m.

When I arrived at the Las Vegas Convention Center via Desert Inn Road, I saw cars milling around like stampeding cattle. I found an entry to the outer parking lot south of the Desert Inn hotel-casino at the corner of Desert Inn and Swenson. After going west through a huge truck and van parking area inside the outer parking lot, I found the entrance to the inner parking lot. Cars were streaming out of it toward the outer parking lot, because the inner parking lot was full.

The guard yelled at me to make a U-turn and return to the outer parking lot, where a roped off area was being entered by panicky drivers who were charged $5. I made another U-turn and exited right on to Paradise Road, turned left onto Desert Inn and went home in disgust. The distance for walking from the outer parking lot to the huge "convention factory" would have been too long to be worth $5. I also know that other parking lots in the vicinity charge gouging rates even higher than that and require large walking distances to boot.

What I did notice was that out-of-town visitors were being shipped in on shuttle buses from the nearby hotels. I felt that it was not right for me to occupy the surrounding hotel parking buildings and take a van, because those parking spaces are for hotel guests. Besides, vans are inconvenient due to timing frequency problems.

As a local show attendee, I will not attend the trade show I am registered for this year out of disgust for the parking problems. No doubt other local attendees are as chagrined as I am. The trade show organization also loses attendees that way.

FRANK M. PELTESON