COLUMBIA, 1/25/11 (Beat Byte) -- As
Columbia's new Low-Car Lifestyle building -- i.e. behemoth downtown
parking garage -- overshadows everything in its wake, controversy about parking
dominates the news.
City Hall wants to raise parking fines and build yet
another downtown garage, ostensibly to service a redesigned Regency Hotel, but
which may already have a larger audience: future tenants of the
Odle family's giant new apartment complex proposed for the nearby corner of
College and Walnut streets.
Last November, Mayor Bob McDavid, M.D. tossed around ideas
to better deploy parking revenue, about which we heard from local education
leader Phil Peters, J.D., and PedNet Coalition Director Ian Thomas,
Ph.D.
"Thanks for highlighting the shortcomings of limited the
uses of parking revenues," Peters wrote. Thomas added that the "topic certainly
deserves a good public airing."
He also highlighted a central dilemma: Why is Columbia's government, in the face of widespread support for
He also highlighted a central dilemma: Why is Columbia's government, in the face of widespread support for
lower-car living, eagerly expanding its already sizeable
downtown parking monopoly?
"In difficult economic times, a shift to more sustainable
transportation options will generate enormous savings for the individual and the
City," Thomas writes. "If the parking utility is indeed a net
revenue-generator, it seems to make a lot of sense to use that revenue to
encourage more economical use of scarce transportation resources -- for example,
by investing that revenue into our public transportation system and increasing
the frequency of the service so that it becomes a competitive
option."
But that's not happening, with new parking development bucking the basic economics of supply and demand.
But that's not happening, with new parking development bucking the basic economics of supply and demand.
"I wonder how much thought has gone into the number of
levels designed into a parking structure," Thomas asks. "At the moment, the
upper levels of the City's existing four garages are minimally occupied even at
peak times, and I fear the same will be true for the new structure."
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