Quote:
Originally Posted by biggus diggus
There will be more residents with cars than they will have spaces for, there will be visitors with cars, and there will be service people with cars. There will be more cars than spaces, that cannot be argued as it is not my opinion or speculation, it's an absolute inevitability. Between ASU and local businesses along with all of the new apartments in the area, parking is already at a premium. Matt's Big Breakfast, The Velo, and Cobra all struggle daily with people parking in their lots and disappearing, do you think building an apartment structure with too few spaces will help that matter or make it worse?
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It will probably be neutral and may even improve the situation. If there are Derby residents who own cars but who do not secure parking spaces on property, they are going to be few in number and most likely looking for overnight parking -- not parking during prime business hours. I assume / hope most of those businesses secure their small lots when closed.
Besides, the lots associated with those businesses are so small that most customers are already parking on the street, if they arrive by car at all. Many businesses in the area such as Short Leash, Moira, Pomo, Milk Bar, and the Breadfruit don't have any parking lots of their own, yet they seem to be doing well.
The possible improvement will come if more customers of those businesses, enticed by all that's going on Downtown, decide to live within walking / bicycling distance of their favorite places, eliminating their need to drive to these destinations and possibly even their desire to own cars in the first place.
Finally, it astonishes me that someone in a forum devoted to urban development thinks that it's automatically bad to have more cars than spaces. In fact, that's often a sign of a successful urban neighborhood worth visiting. It's a long read, but I strongly suggest Donald Shoup's "the High Cost of Free Parking" for a good explanation of some of these concepts.
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