I have to confess: I get all of my news from essentially two sources: nytimes.com and the Planetizen Newswire. I’d like to dedicate today’s post to all the urban planners out there. And apologize for it being a little incoherent.
I am not a huge fan of cars. They’re generally bad for the environment and disconnect us from our surroundings. That said, a car is probably the first thing I’d buy if I moved back to Buffalo. In some places, they aren’t as superfluous. Anyway, people (my housemates included) should try harder to avoid unnecessary driving, in my opinion. Today I read this article about eliminating parking requirements for new development in DC. It struck a cord as DC is the place where I kicked my car-loving habit in the first place.
The debate, I guess, is the walkable city-ites against the commuters.
Advocates counter that parking is about more than drivers’ convenience; it can profoundly affect the look and feel of a city…
In practice, critics say, the requirements create an excess supply of parking, making it artificially cheap. That, the argument goes, encourages unnecessary driving and makes congestion worse. The standards also encourage people to build unsightly surface lots and garages instead of inviting storefronts and residential facades, they say. Walkers must dodge cars pulling in and out of driveways, and curb cuts eat up space that could otherwise be used for trees.
Some of this is definitely a matter of personal preference. I, for one, wouldn’t mind if I never saw another plaza again. As Jane Jacobs aptly points out, having one more tree in a neighborhood doesn’t really do a whole lot to save the environment, but I’ve got to imagine that discouraging cars and pushing people toward rapid transit would. In the DC example though, Georgetown springs to mind, and not just because I spent so much time there. It’s the only place in the city where I regularly hung out that didn’t have a metro stop. I’ll refrain from what I think about their not having a metro stop and just make the obvious point that Gtown has very little parking, and the buses that run there are infrequent and unreliable (shout out to you, 38B!).
So basically, besides hating cars and loving that planners are considering disregarding them in my old place of residence, I’m reflecting on neighborhood-by-neighborhood planning. At my current job we’re working on some incentive zoning stuff and talking about how it probably won’t fly in every neighborhood in Seattle. Maybe I should go to grad school and learn about this stuff.
