Park once and walk?
Most all of the neighborhoods within the original borders of Minneapolis and St. Paul were designed with the pedestrian or streetcar in mind, and their commercial nodes are often a good collection of shops and restaurants that are arranged in a walkable manner. They’re nice and I like their (often times) quirky nature. The problem is that if you drive there, you can’t park once and walk. If you’re running errands at multiple stores, you’ll probably have to move your car at least once (unless you luckily can pick up the handful of on-street spots).
For example: Highland Park‘s parking space is limited, thus it is cherished. Businesses are very clear (and rightfully so) that they own certain parking spaces and if you aren’t a patron – you will be towed (at your own expense). I get it, the Highland Cafe & Bakery or Half-Priced Books doesn’t want people parking there while they watch a movie at the Highland Theatre or rummaging through the local Barnes & Noble.
Time limits, although not strictly enforced, make people more hesitant about parking in one location and walking across the street. A great deal of time and money is wasted (and congestion added) driving to the new parking lot across the street just to get a bagel after you’ve picked up a prescription.
Minus the odd special occasion, parking in Highland Park isn’t troublesome. There are spaces always available. But, when you can’t park in these spaces for more than 30 minutes, it poses a problem and incentives people to be wasteful. I’m positive that most people visiting Highland Park wouldn’t mind walking, but parking restriction prevent people from staying longer in one place. For multiple errands, most people will need to drive to multiple parking spaces. It seems to me that it would be wise to create a comprehensive parking strategy in Highland Park (or other neighborhood commercial nodes where this is an issue).
Where do we go from here? How can we deal with a comprehensive parking plan when the ownership of space is in the hands of dozens of businesses?
I’ll write more on this later. Meanwhile, I am off to prepare for the Strong Towns’ Virtual Curbside Chat!
Maybe parking garages are the answer. It’s nice to be able to park in a garage and walk around as much as I want near 50th and France. Some other compact areas have garages like this too. Unfortunately when there’s a timed-payment structure for a garage (think Uptown), the cheap/free spots on the street or in front of business make it so people will troll for those spots just to avoid spending a couple bucks in the garage.
There is a parking garage in Highland Park (next to the Lifetime Fitness). It’s used quite a bit, too. The public can park there for a small fee, however it falls victim to exactly what you’re talking about:
“Unfortunately when there’s a timed-payment structure for a garage (think Uptown), the cheap/free spots on the street or in front of business make it so people will troll for those spots just to avoid spending a couple bucks in the garage.”
Thanks for reading! -Nate
It’s also probably worth pointing out (though I know this is pretty much the opposite of your point), that Wal*Mart also solves this problem. If all the different destinations you’re trying to walk between are consolidated into one destination, you also park once and walk (and there is significant walking, since the stores and parking lots are huge).
Good point.
Wal-Mart, Target and just about any enclosed suburban mall accomplishes that goal of “parking once”. On that same accord, I have always been amazed at people’s unwillingness to park two city blocks away from a given destination, yet – have no quarrels with parking at the back of a Wal-Mart, walking the equivalent of two city blocks then rummaging around in a 1 million sq.ft box for a half-hour.
I don’t think you have ever been in a million sq ft building. It is much, much larger then Wal-mart. In a million sq ft building most people use golf carts or fork lifts to get around them.
You’re right. I probably haven’t been in a million sq.ft. building. I’m not sure of the size if an average Wal-Mart, etc. But I meant the size in sq.ft not to be literal, but more as illustrative language implying that these are really large building. Thanks for reading, longtime no chat. Hope all is well.-Nate
Well, I believe Nate and most Minnesotians have been in a building over 1 milion sqft. Mall of America has over 4.2 million enclosed sqft of space. Last time I checked shoppers didn’t use golf carts or fork lifts to get around. That is also a “park once” situation where people park almost a mile away to shop for their goods.
That’s my 2 cents.
I don’t consider the mall of America a single building, but you are welcome to Sam.
I was referring to wal-Mary not being that large anyways.