The City of New Haven, supported by the city Parking Authority, is moving down the path of removing parking minimum for new construction. The Parking Authority sees this as a boon to its empty garages. Lots of construction with no parking would mean cars that have to park somewhere, as in the Authority’s garages.
The City of Seattle has an election for mayor coming up and one candidate is running on a ticket of no cars at all in Seattle. He is pro bike, transit and foot. He wants to defund the police, too.
You can read all about this over at Parknews.biz.
As for New Haven, I have been always in favor of doing away with parking minimums. They make no sense, increase the cost of building, and frankly discriminate against those who don’t own cars. Let the developer decide whether or not parking is needed and how much. If they feel that their project would be more saleable with more parking so be it. Let the renters pay more for units with parking, if they need it. Don Shoup call your office.
As for the Emerald City, l believe that if you want to get people to walk everywhere, you need to turn your city into Manhattan. Build hundreds of high rise apartment buildings and people will move into them and then get jobs nearby. You probably will need a city-wide rapid transit system because not all jobs will be within walking distance (or biking) of the available housing. But these are details I’m sure the prospective mayor has worked out.
Once again some bureaucrat wants to force people out of their cars to save the planet. I really think that you might ask people first what they think about it. Do they really want to do away with their cars? If so, why aren’t they lining up to pay for apartments in the central city. Is it possible they like living in the burbs and are willing to pay the price of the commute? If they are so damned concerned about saving the planet, why are only 2% of vehicles on the road EVs?
I suggest that when you begin a campaign to force people off the road, you will have a real problem on your hands. Why not attempt to make nondriving more attractive? Make the cities safer, cleaner, more fun? Oh, I forgot, we are defunding the police. That has been proven to make cities safe. Right!
JVH
