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Home » Rational Urbanism » The Myth of Inadequate Downtown Parking II

The Myth of Inadequate Downtown Parking II

In the light of recent news items regarding the issue of parking in the downtown I decided to take advantage of a rare midweek day off and document just how much parking there is, in this case, a block or so from the county courthouse in the middle of the work day.
   
    
Here is a picture of the courthouse from the roof of the garage. It is about a block away. (And there seem to be spots in the surface lot too!!)

  
Less significant for jurors and employees of the courthouse but significant for visitors to the downtown who plan to spend only an hour or two, here are some available on-street spaces. I snapped these photos on the way home from lunch. Keep in mind that the ideal parking situation regarding on street spaces is ONE spot available per block. I’d say we’re safe!

   
    
    
   

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7 thoughts on “The Myth of Inadequate Downtown Parking II”

  1. Price Armstrong says:
    April 27, 2016 at 2:39 pm

    Love this post. It’s funny, I was just watching a video that achieved some measure of viral-ness where a speech from the WWII movie “Downfall” had a rant by Hitler subtitled to be a rant about Northampton (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSQOyuWedjI). A big part of the rant had to do with how hard it is to park in Northampton, and how that is leading to Northampton “losing out” to Easthampton.

    That’s an all-too-common, but totally backward way of looking at parking and urban space. Sure, you can build more parking lots and parking garages, but the thing about downtown Northampton that makes it attractive is the walkable business corridor right along the main drag. Parking lots are not interesting or attractive, they’re merely necessary for people choosing to get around by car. But the more parking you have in an urban core, the less space there is for the interesting and attractive stuff that people actually want to go to.

    Put another way, you can either build a city for cars, or you can build it for people. If you build it for cars, you get downtown Springfield or Holyoke, which has ample parking all over but not a lot going on after 5 PM. If you build it for people, then you get downtown Northampton or Cambridge, with a vibrant streetscape well into the night.

    Of course, the success or failure of Northampton vis-a-vis Springfield depends on more than just how much parking there is. But parking does play a role, and it’s something I wish more people understood.

    Reply
    • Steve says:
      April 29, 2016 at 7:11 am

      Exactly. I recommend Norman Garrick’s work on this topic. Thanks for reading!

      Reply
    • Seth says:
      April 29, 2016 at 10:21 am

      AMAZING video!

      I know a few people in the valley and the sense I get is that the kids are moving to East Hampton not because it has more parking, but because they are looking for the next funky thing. This is the challenge of relying on funky-ness as an economic strategy. You’re essentially a fad. You need to figure out how to have a successful boring economy too…

      Reply
  2. Stephen Cary says:
    April 27, 2016 at 3:22 pm

    I’ve lived here for 53 years and I believe local people generally complain if they can’t pull in directly in front of their destination. I’m down here everyday and lucky enough to have a spot in the MassMutual Center garage. but I do have to say this: If you get another day off soon, bring your camera down with the same goal in the morning between 8:30-10. That would yield a different set of pictures. Love what you’re doing – keep the discussions and observations going. You are enjoyable to read sir!

    Reply
  3. Paul Fritz says:
    April 29, 2016 at 1:57 pm

    I get so tired of hearing about the parking problem in my town. I’ve been counting available on-street parking spaces for about a year now whenever I walk the 4 blocks. I have a pretty good number of counts from every day of the week and all hours. There is almost always at least 1 space per block, and rarely less than 20 available in a 4 block stretch. The last block some might consider beyond ‘downtown’ but you can seriously walk the 4 block stretch in around 5 minutes. Most of us are capable of that.

    Reply
  4. Eric says:
    April 30, 2016 at 10:59 pm

    I live in Cambridge, where people also complain about parking, and I always laugh–partly because even here there are lots of spots–but also because I used to live in Manhattan. It’s all relative… Thanks for the post.

    Reply
  5. Pingback: Rational Urbanism | Thank You, Ted Rall

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