Truck Uses Curb Ramp as Entrance To Downtown Surface Parking Lot
So I’m at a red light the other day and I scramble to get my camera out of my pocket because I can’t believe what I am witnessing — a massive pickup using the corner curb ramp as an entrance to the large surface parking lot.
Geez, is that really necessary? Maybe it is not a big deal? Would the driver have seen someone in a wheelchair coming out from behind the traffic signal box seen behind the truck’s bed?
With this lot, and so many others, no parking is allowed around them because all the curbs are open for easy access. So despite having virtually unlimited access on the sides this guy has to use the ADA ramp on the corner to access the parking space he wants.
After using the corner as the entrance he pulls up a bit further within the lot so he can back into the space. Why he couldn’t have just pulled in using the wide driveway near the front of his truck in the above photo is beyond me. Maybe he felt more like he was driving a truck by driving over something he shouldn’t?
He finally manages to back the gargantuan vehicle into a space and a half. I think if people are going to drive these things as personal vehicles they need to learn how to maneuver them better.
The parking attendant comes over to collect the money from the guys in the truck — I hope they got extra given the amount of room they took up on the lot. In case you are having trouble seeing it, that would be Missouri plate 843 TX7.
Once the two were nearly out of the truck I went by and made a quick smart-ass comment about using the ramp as an entrance and then I sped away on my scooter. I figured it would take them too long to unpark that big truck to chase me down by that point, plus they had already paid to park. In reality, in this situation, the truck using the corner wasn’t a big deal. It was over in seconds and this time nobody happened to be there on the corner. Had someone been on the corner he probably would have waited or simply used the drives instead.
The real problem is that at 11th and Locust we have a large surface parking lot which is paved right up to the sidewalk — to the point the parking and sidewalk contrast only in that one is concrete (sidewalk) and one is asphalt (parking). At the very least we need some bollards or something around these lots so that the sidewalk is protected from vehicles except where permitted to enter/exit. Just to the North of Washington Avenue we have two small city blocks that are nothing but surface parking right up to the sidewalks. Another there is not even paved — it is gravel. Yes, a gravel lot in a downtown!
We must find a way to change the economic model — this cannot and should not be the highest and best use for this land. Among the options, once explored, is the idea of taxing land and not improvements. Thus, the person with a city block occupied by surface parking pays the same taxes as a person with a building(s) on the same size land. I’m sure this is fraught with all sorts of legal issues — my point is we need to look at alternative models employed in other cities for these vast wastelands where buildings once stood. As bad as all the parking garages are — and we have tons of those — these surface lots are worse.
So where do these fit into downtown planning? Do we simply wait until the property owner decides to sell or build something? Do we find some incentives to get the owner to upgrade the surface lot with some bollards, a low brick wall or something to separate the pedestrian from pickup? Do we punish the owner with increasing taxes to the point he breaks and sells the land to a developer? Can we set minimum parking pricing within the CBD so that the owner can make as much money with fewer cars — leaving room around the edges for an improved buffer? What about simply suggesting the owner lease the corner to someone for a temporary newsstand like the type you see in NY?
I’m not content just waiting and I doubt our downtown leaders are working on creative solutions. What are your ideas?
The City’s Minimum Exterior Standards for Parking lots (MinEx Standards) require brick walls, vegetation or fences to shield the parking lot from the street. Obviously that would prevent driving over the sidewalks to get in as well.
But why have a truck if you can’t drive over things?* (this is my 5-year-old’s opinion, mine is somewhat different)
Hey, I’ve done that too – call it an attractive nuisance. The only way to eliminate the “problem” is to add barriers (fences, curbs, landscaping) or remove the curb ramps. Like Lisa’s son says, why have a Jeep if you can’t jump a curb every once in a while? And how is this that much different than a “normal” curb cut? This one just happens to be narrower and conveniently located on the corner!
But seriously, screening a parking lot signifcantly improves both the pedestrian and urban experiences in the city. Maybe we can figure out how to give these grand-fathered operators some TIF’s so they can afford to screen the older ones! 😉
So, when is the next mayoral election? I just moved back here in 2006, so I haven’t had the enjoyment of one yet. You know of anyone willing to try and upset the apple cart?
Solutions? First enforce existing parking rules. Second, value and tax parking lots at fair market value instead at deep discounts. Also educate the public on the real costs of parking lots. Other cities realize that lots are not only environmentally disasterous but are also making us lazier as individuals. Parking lots are indicators of discredited and outdated urban design ideas that have proven to be poorly conceived with little debate or thought. Progressive cities across the globe are eliminating parking lot requirements from their zoning codes…will the StL region ever get its act together with a public that is so attached to their cars?
I bet the driver thought the curb ramp WAS a vehicular ramp, just a little narrower than usual. Can you blame him, really? He probably comes from a place where they don’t even have sidewalks–or pedestrians.
Sad to think that urban culture is now so much of an anomaly that we city-dwellers have to civilize visiting suburbanites so we won’t be run over by errant SUVs on our own sidewalks.
Me, I’m pressing for City Council legislation that would mandate 15-minute-long “How to Walk in New York” classes at Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports for all incoming tourists, foreign and domestic.
. . . at least he wasn’t parking on the sidewalk (or in a crosswalk), as too many government employees do . . .
While UR readers look for creative solutions, the SLBJ is applauding the Mayor and his team for performing a successful heart transplant operation in DT St. Louis. Are we living in alternative realities?
You can’t tax parking lots any different than other property, as state law specifies it to be taxed at a particular percentage of assessed value. You can argue about whether it is being underassessed, but that is a minor point in the big picture. If the problem is too much parking downtown, simply implement a business license for parking lots, and charge a substantial annual per-space fee. You can be sure that if there was a $250 per space business license fee for parking lots, there would be far fewer lots.
There’s only one problem with this line of reasoning: Most people, both in government and out, believe there is too LITTLE parking downtown. So such an approach is rather unlikely.
On a more important point, the anti-spam keyword when I posted this was newtown. Are you guys getting payola from Whittaker, or what? I’m not kidding, see a screen shot here:
http://jennings.kasoff.net/newtown.png
When I first moved downtown in 2000, I had to convince construction workers not to park their Big Foot wannabe trucks ON the sidewalk directly in front of our building’s front door (literally with the front door of the building obstructed by their trucks). Of course, they also thought it was okay to leave fast food trash on the sidewalk after lunch, until we pointed out that was not so nice. And these were guys working inside our building!
All over downtown StL are parking lots and the pricing of parking shows the overabundance of it. The problem here is that most refuse to walk more than a few blocks to their destination …of course the public and officials claim the opposite!
The valuation of parking lots IS the problem. This is one reason why most our lots are so poorly designed and poorly maintained. This lot, owned by an out of state corporation, is appraised for $99,200 (thus the tax assessment level is typically even lower) and is characterized as unimproved even though it is being used to generate income. Given its size and location, this assessment amount is absurdly low. Recently, a much smaller parking lot in Clayton (valued under $12,000 for tax purposes) sold for over $400,000.
In effect, the taxing of parking lots is corporate welfare on a large scale. However, given the high level of auto-centrism here, these public welfare policies will be difficult to debate and even more difficult to change. The majority of the voting public in the StL region likes the idea that their needs are financed and paid for by others rather than out of their own pockets.
Have you complained to the property manager? Reported this “incident” to the city? Did you call the police against this heinous tragedy involving some poor schmuck trying to get to work?
I guess not. You said yourself that you went the path most taken and said some “smart-ass” comment to the guy. Wow that’s an effective way to change the man’s view on things.
Well, if you’re going to be a smart-ass about it, then be a snitch too. Isn’t there a cop rolling around? Tell him. Doesn’t Central Parking or St. Louis Parking own the lot? Make sure the guy in the truck paid at least double.
Just don’t make a mockery of downtown dwellers/workers by saying snooty comments to someone who’s quite possibly from the county. It makes us look bad!
Then you drove off in your scooter…. ha! 49cc and below scooters afford the luxury of not being plated and riding/parking anywhere they want to. Being in a city that’s just now getting used to the worldwide scooter reality, can you sit at your desk, complain about construction workers’ parking habits, and say with a straight face that you never break traffic code by parking on the sidewalk or riding on the shoulder in traffic?
I thought so.
Lucky you.
“Nowell” committed an impressive number of grammatical errors…I know I’m going to take the comment seriously!
Um, if you’re driving a truck like that you’re _supposed_ to drive over things that aren’t meant for driving over. Everyone who drives big trucks knows that!
After I looked at the pictures I thought — wasn’t this a much more hospitable corner, when that ugly surface parking lot was instead occupied by a building that housed Miss Hulling’s Cafeteria, Catfish & Crystal Restaurant, etc. Particularly I thought this because I just bought a 1979 vintage issue of St. Louis Magazine (the original incarnation), that featured both eating places.
I vaguely remember this demolition; wasn’t it in the mid 1990s?
(sigh)
Also, parking lots and parking garages DO pay an extra tax, just like restaurants. It’s called the Central Business Index:
http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/comptroller/cbi.html
The best solution for this parking lot is for something to actually be built on the land. It seems like it wasn’t too long ago that a building WAS there, but that lot would be a perfect location for something; it’s very centrally located. A surface parking lot can’t make that much money can it, compared to its sale price?