Black Friday Parking is an article from Strong Towns about the benefits of getting rid of parking minimums. I know I have talked about parking before but I am continually amazed when walking around New Rochelle at the ENORMOUS amount of space used for parking. It seems like every street has some tucked away paved over space devoted to off street surface parking. The Black Friday Parking article makes the excellent point that requiring commercial activities, and even residential developments, to fulfill parking minimum requirements is not just a waste of space but it decimates the tax base because municipalities have a much lower tax return on asphalt surface parking than they do on buildings. Reminder for all us planners - our job is to think and plan not auto zone.
And a plea on behalf of all us pedestrians. Echoing an article I read recently....give us eye candy! If we want people to walk then we need to make it interesting. Views that engage us, make us curious to explore, make us want to walk into and through areas because they are visually appealing. Not visually appalling which is the only way I can describe the acres of asphalt devoted to surface parking. Scroll down for one happily spotted alternative....
And a plea on behalf of all us pedestrians. Echoing an article I read recently....give us eye candy! If we want people to walk then we need to make it interesting. Views that engage us, make us curious to explore, make us want to walk into and through areas because they are visually appealing. Not visually appalling which is the only way I can describe the acres of asphalt devoted to surface parking. Scroll down for one happily spotted alternative....
I believe that under this lawn is a parking garage. Helping reduce storm water runoff, reducing urban heat island effect, adding some green (even though I'm not a fan of mowed grass it sure beats asphalt!).... More of these these please.
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