Writing as a brother in a suburban area with a solid public transit system and one who happens to live a 20min walk from the lodge, I don't think about parking at all. We are situated next to a decent sized parking lot as well as lots of street parking, so other than the need to resurface the lot, no other parking problems have been brought up.
I think I told this story a while back ago. My mother Lodge in Puerto Rico, back in a time were Masons were persecuted and imprisoned (sometimes being executed for just being Masons), they used to meet at a small island in the south of PR. The island is called "Caja de Muertos" (Coffin Island).
The Brothers travel in the dark of the night to the coast, to then row a few miles in to get to the island for the meeting , to then row back to their homes. All that while avoiding being caught..
So, nope. Lack of near parking spaces should not be a problem.
While Masons in my Jurisdiction have never suffered from persecution, certainly in the early days of the Jurisdiction travel to and from Lodge was very difficult. I'm aware of one group of Brothers who would have to canoe across part of the Puget Sound in order to attend Lodge, and I've read accounts of tremendous difficulties traveling in the dark through the virgin forests of Western Washington.
Today of course we can travel to Lodge in comfort, at 55 miles per hour!
Of the 3 lodges I am a member of, only 1 has a parking lot. And literally no one ever uses it. It's a tiny lot, co owned with a couple of businesses in the area. But it's farther then parking on the street or even in the parking lot at city hall across the street.
The only reason I think a parking lot near the building matters is for the elderly or otherwise handicapped brothers who might not easily walk far.
Yeah, when I visit your Lodge, I always make sure to park in front of the Police Department. Always parking available there, and I figure it ensures my car will still be there when I leave!
We are fortunate to have a large amount of parking here in Wenatchee with over 100 spaces. The problem being we rent those spaces to the medical clinic next door Monday through Friday. While this is not usually an issue as our meetings are held after they go home it does pose limitations when any of our groups have a weekday event. This creates the need to park two lots over in a partially dirt lot with a considerable distance for some to navigate. I cannot imagine some of the problems our Brothers have with such an overlooked necessity for ease of attending. We do have eight reserved locations on our north side and about 15 more on our south side. Question? How many of our Lodges are ADA compliant for parking and facilities?
I believe that very, very few of our buildings in this Jurisdiction are suitable for those with serious physical difficulties. Of the four Lodges I'm a member of, only one could be considered wheelchair friendly. But, alas, the parking available to it is not.
Of course a lot of that is a carryover from the time when it was felt that Lodges needed to meet on an upper floor.
Lack of parking is a very bad reason to consider selling a Lodge building for that sole reason. Most Lodge buildings are in less than great conditions, and expecting to sell a current building and purchasing or building with proceeds is not going to happen in today's commercial real estate market. 2 of my Lodges depend on street parking which in the evening is not a problem but very much a problem in the daytime.
>>>expecting to sell a current building and purchasing or building with proceeds is not going to >>>happen in today's commercial real estate market.
Absent some kind of extraordinary situation, I think that this must largely hold true. Most of the buildings in my Jurisdiction are not going to get top dollar, because they suffer from far too much deferred maintenance. Plus they would have to be updated and repurposed for another use.
It absolutely has an influence, and for much more than just "well people don't come to lodge because there's no place to park." Our lodge is in a large town/ small city. (Bremerton WA) although we pointedly call ourselves the Manette lodge (a town that has been swallowed up by Bremerton.) Now there's a couple of problems with this.
1) our public transit system is virtually nonexistent.
2) so is parking.
3) there are eight other lodges within ten miles of us, some of which have adequate or more than adequate parking.
So we have competition for members, but more importantly we have competition for the money that renting our lodge hall out would give. That money is needed for maintenance on the building.
As I have traveled about and dealt with not just masonic lodges but elks and the FMA, I've come to add another law to the growing list of "Lehman's laws." Specifically, when it comes to NPO buildings you can 1) own your building but it's old, maintenance is a bitch, and parking sucks. or 2) Your building is relatively new, and you have great parking, but the mortgage is murderous and you're just barely keeping up with it. There is no third option.
This means that finding other income streams for your building is paramount. And that's where parking really comes in. If you want to rent out your hall for nearly any organization that is big enough to NEED a hall, they want to know about your parking. If you don't have any, they're going to go looking for someone who does.
“Your building is relatively new, and you have great parking, but the mortgage is murderous and you're just barely keeping up with it.”
In addition to “mortgage,” you can also slide in “Property Tax” and “Insurance.” And like No. 1, if it isn’t already, maintenance will be a bitch.
The third option is renting an existing hall, such as a Grange or Legion hall, etc. Ah, no property tax! No Maintenance! …uh, wait a minute? You doubled our rent? You sold the building and the new owner wants to turn it into a residence, or business office? Hey, when are you going to fix the heater? A/C?
You’re not wrong. Not by a long shot. It's tough, no matter how you look at it. Just depends on what kind of difficulties you can handle.
I do think that renting something like a Grange hall can be a very good option. On my list of my own favorite Lodges, about half don't own a building. I think that by not having to worry about the real estate investment, more energy can be put into the Lodge itself.
Thank you for this. It does make a lot of sense to me that a building would be much more attractive for event rentals if it has lots of free and easy parking.
My mother Lodge has only a few spaces of its own, tucked here and there, but there's plenty of room at the school next door and the museum across the street. And then there's an entire church lot just around the corner we can use. People still complain. It's like they want valet service or something.
Parking is an issue, especially with an urban lodge (say, Doric, for example). Not knowing what the parking options are can be frustrating especially for rare visitors. Getting a parking ticket isn't the best ending to the evening.
Writing as a brother in a suburban area with a solid public transit system and one who happens to live a 20min walk from the lodge, I don't think about parking at all. We are situated next to a decent sized parking lot as well as lots of street parking, so other than the need to resurface the lot, no other parking problems have been brought up.
I'm glad to know that this doesn't impact your Lodge. It is one less thing to have to worry about.
I think I told this story a while back ago. My mother Lodge in Puerto Rico, back in a time were Masons were persecuted and imprisoned (sometimes being executed for just being Masons), they used to meet at a small island in the south of PR. The island is called "Caja de Muertos" (Coffin Island).
The Brothers travel in the dark of the night to the coast, to then row a few miles in to get to the island for the meeting , to then row back to their homes. All that while avoiding being caught..
So, nope. Lack of near parking spaces should not be a problem.
Your point is very well taken, Brother.
While Masons in my Jurisdiction have never suffered from persecution, certainly in the early days of the Jurisdiction travel to and from Lodge was very difficult. I'm aware of one group of Brothers who would have to canoe across part of the Puget Sound in order to attend Lodge, and I've read accounts of tremendous difficulties traveling in the dark through the virgin forests of Western Washington.
Today of course we can travel to Lodge in comfort, at 55 miles per hour!
Wow! Love this article. I just enjoy your articles. More!!
Thank you Brother! I really appreciate your kind words!
Of the 3 lodges I am a member of, only 1 has a parking lot. And literally no one ever uses it. It's a tiny lot, co owned with a couple of businesses in the area. But it's farther then parking on the street or even in the parking lot at city hall across the street.
The only reason I think a parking lot near the building matters is for the elderly or otherwise handicapped brothers who might not easily walk far.
Yeah, when I visit your Lodge, I always make sure to park in front of the Police Department. Always parking available there, and I figure it ensures my car will still be there when I leave!
We are fortunate to have a large amount of parking here in Wenatchee with over 100 spaces. The problem being we rent those spaces to the medical clinic next door Monday through Friday. While this is not usually an issue as our meetings are held after they go home it does pose limitations when any of our groups have a weekday event. This creates the need to park two lots over in a partially dirt lot with a considerable distance for some to navigate. I cannot imagine some of the problems our Brothers have with such an overlooked necessity for ease of attending. We do have eight reserved locations on our north side and about 15 more on our south side. Question? How many of our Lodges are ADA compliant for parking and facilities?
I believe that very, very few of our buildings in this Jurisdiction are suitable for those with serious physical difficulties. Of the four Lodges I'm a member of, only one could be considered wheelchair friendly. But, alas, the parking available to it is not.
Of course a lot of that is a carryover from the time when it was felt that Lodges needed to meet on an upper floor.
Lack of parking is a very bad reason to consider selling a Lodge building for that sole reason. Most Lodge buildings are in less than great conditions, and expecting to sell a current building and purchasing or building with proceeds is not going to happen in today's commercial real estate market. 2 of my Lodges depend on street parking which in the evening is not a problem but very much a problem in the daytime.
>>>expecting to sell a current building and purchasing or building with proceeds is not going to >>>happen in today's commercial real estate market.
Absent some kind of extraordinary situation, I think that this must largely hold true. Most of the buildings in my Jurisdiction are not going to get top dollar, because they suffer from far too much deferred maintenance. Plus they would have to be updated and repurposed for another use.
It absolutely has an influence, and for much more than just "well people don't come to lodge because there's no place to park." Our lodge is in a large town/ small city. (Bremerton WA) although we pointedly call ourselves the Manette lodge (a town that has been swallowed up by Bremerton.) Now there's a couple of problems with this.
1) our public transit system is virtually nonexistent.
2) so is parking.
3) there are eight other lodges within ten miles of us, some of which have adequate or more than adequate parking.
So we have competition for members, but more importantly we have competition for the money that renting our lodge hall out would give. That money is needed for maintenance on the building.
As I have traveled about and dealt with not just masonic lodges but elks and the FMA, I've come to add another law to the growing list of "Lehman's laws." Specifically, when it comes to NPO buildings you can 1) own your building but it's old, maintenance is a bitch, and parking sucks. or 2) Your building is relatively new, and you have great parking, but the mortgage is murderous and you're just barely keeping up with it. There is no third option.
This means that finding other income streams for your building is paramount. And that's where parking really comes in. If you want to rent out your hall for nearly any organization that is big enough to NEED a hall, they want to know about your parking. If you don't have any, they're going to go looking for someone who does.
“Your building is relatively new, and you have great parking, but the mortgage is murderous and you're just barely keeping up with it.”
In addition to “mortgage,” you can also slide in “Property Tax” and “Insurance.” And like No. 1, if it isn’t already, maintenance will be a bitch.
The third option is renting an existing hall, such as a Grange or Legion hall, etc. Ah, no property tax! No Maintenance! …uh, wait a minute? You doubled our rent? You sold the building and the new owner wants to turn it into a residence, or business office? Hey, when are you going to fix the heater? A/C?
You’re not wrong. Not by a long shot. It's tough, no matter how you look at it. Just depends on what kind of difficulties you can handle.
I do think that renting something like a Grange hall can be a very good option. On my list of my own favorite Lodges, about half don't own a building. I think that by not having to worry about the real estate investment, more energy can be put into the Lodge itself.
Thank you for this. It does make a lot of sense to me that a building would be much more attractive for event rentals if it has lots of free and easy parking.
My mother Lodge has only a few spaces of its own, tucked here and there, but there's plenty of room at the school next door and the museum across the street. And then there's an entire church lot just around the corner we can use. People still complain. It's like they want valet service or something.
That sounds like the Lodge in my little city. Loads of parking available, but an awful lot of concerns about parking! 😁
Parking is an issue, especially with an urban lodge (say, Doric, for example). Not knowing what the parking options are can be frustrating especially for rare visitors. Getting a parking ticket isn't the best ending to the evening.
Your point is well taken. I do imagine that a lack of parking in a major metro area would discourage visitors who are unfamiliar with the area.