Well, I guess I know where I won’t be parking my car or walking through with my family: Northampton’s crumbling parking garage, where structural concerns have already forced the closure of the upper levels. The thought of a slab of concrete coming crashing down and pancaking somebody into the pavement isn’t particularly reassuring.

But they’re keeping the lower levels open anyway.

The solution? A multimillion-dollar Band-Aid that city officials themselves admit is just a temporary fix. And the price tag for the much-needed replacement? Tens of millions of dollars. Meanwhile, there’s a grand $43 million plan to transform Main Street into a carbon-belching traffic jam, where motorists can spend 10 minutes idling while waiting for one driver after another to make their fifth attempt at parallel parking.

If they knock down the garage and replace it with a tiny parking lot, then throw in the parallel parking and potential traffic backups, how many people will decide to take their shopping and dining elsewhere? The Easthampton and Amherst Chambers of Commerce must be among Picture Main Street’s biggest fans. Just imagine all those new customers coming their way.

Main Street can be a mess of traffic as it is, with enough room for two streams of traffic in either direction and a parking configuration that works. Narrow it down to a single travel lane in either direction, with a center turning lane and parallel parking, and the mess likely becomes a nightmare. Not to mention winter. For decades, four inches of snow has created a scale model of the Andes mountain range stretching the length of Main Street before the DPW finally gets around to cleaning it up five days later. How’s that going to work? What happens when we get 14 inches?

Some years back, the city experimented with narrowing Main Street using Jersey barriers, carving out space for pedestrians and outdoor dining while reducing room for traffic and parking. Downtown merchants revolted, complaining that the new setup created congestion, made parking more difficult, and drove customers away. The backlash was strong enough that the city scrapped the experiment early. Apparently, that experience wasn’t enough to give City Hall pause.

City officials assure us their traffic studies show the new design will work beautifully. I hope they’re right. But I also hope somebody remembered that Northampton has winters, rush hours, delivery trucks, and drivers who can’t parallel park without a driving instructor riding shotgun.

At this point, Picture Main Street seems to be a case study in heels-dug-in, face-saving municipal stubbornness. And what passes for transparency? The city submitted its completed design to MassDOT before publicly presenting that version to residents. Meanwhile, as the project’s price tag ballooned to $43 million, the city’s own website has updated the rising costs on one page but is still citing an outdated $29 million estimate on its FAQ page. And what will Northampton itself ultimately have to pay? Apparently, updating the public on the price tag wasn’t quite as urgent as submitting the finished plans. Public input and financial transparency seem to be things you worry about after you’ve handed in the finished homework.

Let’s not forget that this has all been brought to you by the same city government that spent $3.175 million, the equivalent of about 40 teachers’ annual salaries, purchasing the former First Baptist Church to create a community center and what apparently needs to be the Taj Mahal of homeless drop-in centers. More than three years later, the project remains unfinished, with funding still needed to complete it. And there it sits.

When the project is finished, visitors who manage to find parking way down on Hawley Street can enjoy a leisurely stroll past 50 vacant storefronts on their way to one of the three restaurants still open.

What a legacy the mayor and friends will have. Best of luck with that one.

Brian Cooper lives in Sunderland.