Macy's parking garage next to Charlie Gitto's on 6th Street
This view of Charlie Gitto’s with an big parking garage on the left and a surface parking lot on the right exemplifies everything that went wrong with urban planning. On this city block, only one other building dodged the wrecking ball.
I see this same problem almost everywhere in St. Louis. There is no continuity of purpose, walking is discarded as a way to get around. (What a grand walk it is along that sidewalk). I wish this were the only instance of this type of environment. At a minimum the city should create walking zones or districts that regulate parking and have improved transit. The irony is that an effective urban walking/ mass transit environment would play to the strengths of the city and related suburbs. Still it is not even on the radar of government officials. Partially this is driven by the division of transit from from the city governance by the East West Gateway Council, who knows what else?, energy lobbyists too? Whatever the cause the photo portrays the result of a government not interested in creating the best environment for their citizens. By the way I went to Macy's (by car several weeks ago) and for whatever reason I couldn't get in, the garage was closed, I parked on the street and found out from a saleslady inside that Macy's sold the garage and was shrinking the store. I think I heard about the store shrinking, but not about the garage. Great escalator ride up, nice old wood still more or less intact throughout.
The demand for parking is directly related to the personal auto becoming affordable. Back in the peak times for downtown (1920-1950), other technology were equally unaffordable, or even non-existent. Should we be telling people to give up their PC's for mechanical adding machines, their cell phones for land lines or central air for fans?! Yes, parking has had greater physical impacts, but we're not living in 1930 anymore, either.
In certain environments, primarily where high land values are married to effective public transit systems, then it is possible to shift some parking demand outside of the CBD. But for the vast majority of people, especially around St. Louis, the primary choice for personal transportation is the personal auto. That's our world and our reality, and has been for at least the last 40-50 years.
Yes, we can do a better job of urbanizing parking – screen it and wrap it, wherever possible. Do what you can to shift the economic model to favor public transit. But don't expect any significant change in individual behaviors; the private vehicle simply is the “best” solution for nearly everyone of us, in spite of all its well-known flaws . . .
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and the other building was a near miss that sat vacant for years, including pipes bursting.
I see this same problem almost everywhere in St. Louis. There is no continuity of purpose, walking is discarded as a way to get around. (What a grand walk it is along that sidewalk). I wish this were the only instance of this type of environment.
At a minimum the city should create walking zones or districts that regulate parking and have improved transit.
The irony is that an effective urban walking/ mass transit environment would play to the strengths of the city and related suburbs.
Still it is not even on the radar of government officials. Partially this is driven by the division of transit from from the city governance by the East West Gateway Council, who knows what else?, energy lobbyists too?
Whatever the cause the photo portrays the result of a government not interested in creating the best environment for their citizens.
By the way I went to Macy's (by car several weeks ago) and for whatever reason I couldn't get in, the garage was closed, I parked on the street and found out from a saleslady inside that Macy's sold the garage and was shrinking the store. I think I heard about the store shrinking, but not about the garage. Great escalator ride up, nice old wood still more or less intact throughout.
The demand for parking is directly related to the personal auto becoming affordable. Back in the peak times for downtown (1920-1950), other technology were equally unaffordable, or even non-existent. Should we be telling people to give up their PC's for mechanical adding machines, their cell phones for land lines or central air for fans?! Yes, parking has had greater physical impacts, but we're not living in 1930 anymore, either.
In certain environments, primarily where high land values are married to effective public transit systems, then it is possible to shift some parking demand outside of the CBD. But for the vast majority of people, especially around St. Louis, the primary choice for personal transportation is the personal auto. That's our world and our reality, and has been for at least the last 40-50 years.
Yes, we can do a better job of urbanizing parking – screen it and wrap it, wherever possible. Do what you can to shift the economic model to favor public transit. But don't expect any significant change in individual behaviors; the private vehicle simply is the “best” solution for nearly everyone of us, in spite of all its well-known flaws . . .