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Business & Tech

Parking Change: No Hard Feelings Between Businesses

Customers of The Independent may no longer park on the grass lot between the pub and Cappy's pizzeria.

customers, take note.

The grass parking lot is now off-limits for imbibers, according to a recent post on The Independent's Facebook page. owns the lot between the two businesses and is no longer allowing The Independent to rent it, the March 12 post said.

But workers at both businesses were quick to point out that there is no dispute.

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“There’s no bad blood at all,” said Veronica Vellines of The Independent. The pub's customers are now permitted to park at the front of the WSM Co. building at the corner of Florida and Wilder avenues, in addition to the existing parking at the rear of that building.

“The way we’re working it is it’s Cappy’s parking only,” said John Allen, a manager at the pizzeria. “That doesn’t mean if you’re also going to The Independent, you can’t also park there. That’s not anything we’re concerned with. We just want to make sure that people that come here to have pizza have a decent place to park.”

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Allen said he is pleased that The Independent is doing so well, but explained the reason behind the change.

“We like them as a business,” he said. “It just turns out that on a Friday night our customers do not have a place to park.”

Scooter Gabel, who owns Cappy’s, posted via Facebook that there had been a parking shortage, especially on weekend nights because of the success of the two businesses.

“Independent customers tend to arrive earlier than Cappy’s and the lot is frequently full prior to our opening" of 5 p.m., he wrote on The Independent’s page on March 16. “Many Cappy's customers are families with young kids and are not willing to park blocks away and walk. There is no ill will between these two businesses.”

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