Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Downtown
There are lots of different kinds of neighborhoods and lots of different kinds of retail. Restaurants in dense areas do fine without parking; pet stores not so much. It's also dangerous to generalize from East Lakeview or Streeterville, areas with densities three times that of other Chicago neighborhoods. A dry cleaner in a highrise needs no parking. But in Bucktown or St. Ben's, some nontrivial number of the potential customers might commute by car to suburban jobs or drive the kids to Montessori school. The dry cleaner with a couple of parking spots will do better than the one without.
|
You see I would disagree with that, most of Chicago's neighborhoods have at least one healthy retail district and most of those districts consist of old buildings with next to no parking. For example, I work on Clark Street in Andersonville, not the densist area, and nearly all of the quality retail tenants there have no parking at all. For example, Athletico and Anderson Pet Hospital share 4 spaces out back with our loading dock.
Its only when you get the big chains that you see parking dragged in. For example, Jewel has a massive parking lot, 7-11 has a parking lot, McDonalds has a parking lot. The music store, the pet hospital, the Jewish Deli, and the gay Dentist have no parking except for what is found on the street. I see a corellation here between culture diluting chains and parking, where there is one there is the other. Neighborhood retail does not need parking to survive, but big chain stores do.
The same goes for Rogers Park, where there is parking there is a Dunkin' Donuts, McDonalds, and a Popeyes. Where there is no parking there is a mile long stretch of ethnic restaurants and markets and stores. Another example, who is the anchor tennant of the Granville? Staples (or was it Office Max). Does the Granville have a lot of parking? Yes...
Other examples can be found in Wicker Park, Hyde Park, Logan Square, and even, to some extent, Greektown and the West Loop.