But wait…Parking Generates $$$

Numerous studies done in the past decades have shown that a simple onstreet parking space in a business district is, depending on the area, is responsible for upwards of $300,000 in business for surrounding stores. So, what do we do – we remove the parking spaces and replace them with bus and bike lanes.

Looking out the window, I see that the bike lanes are virtually unused, and the buses are, we are told, filthy and unsafe so most who would potentially use them, other than those who are forced to use them, don’t. Our billion dollar a mile subways are seldom used as folks are afraid of the homeless sleeping in the stations and cars. Can you say Bart in San Francisco, or Metro in Los Angeles.

So, much to the glee of anti parking and anti private vehicles, parking spaces are going the way of the dodo and all that business they generated are going along with them.

Remember, my favorite law, that of unintended consequences, is defined as:

The law of unintended consequences, often cited but rarely defined, is that actions of people—and especially of government—always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended.

Now those ‘government people’ will say that they act for the ‘greater good.’ But do they? How many businesses go bust, and people lost their jobs, when those parking spaces were removed? Remove the parking spaces now, and deal with the fallout later.

In addition to the money generated for local businesses, parking generates considerable funding to the cities that provide and maintain the spaces. In large cities like New York, the numbers are in the hundreds of millions a year. What is the city going to do when that goes away. You know the answer, they will simply raise taxes.

I’m working on a blog, perhaps to be posted next week, to discuss just what the goals of the “anti-parking” crew really is. Who knows, the consequences may not be unintended.

JVH