A Day and a Discussion for Common Sense and Community

You have 2 seconds and one word to answer the following question or your status as the local expert on downtown development will be permanently revoked!  Are you ready?

What is the #1 perceived issue that keeps people from coming downtown to shop?

So collectively the National Main Street choir chimes in in the key of E-flat, "PARKING!"  That's right, you've got it.  The number one issue that we constantly hear as we go across our state is that parking is the perceived problem downtown.  I'm sure you, too, have heard this chorus before ... "It's too hard to find parking downtown," or "You have to park a mile away from where you are going," or better yet, "It's just too hard to park on the street!"

In my best North Georgia twang, "Bless their ever-loving hearts!"

Parking may seem like an issue for the customer that wants to come downtown, but for many communities we know that there is a hearty supply of parking if the customers were only more knowledgeable.  In a world where the majority wants their drive-through meals supersized, superfast and super cheap, downtown seems like an inconvenience. In the world of mega parking lots, I see the often too familiar scene as I drive around our highways:



Asphaltandia:  The place where even the animals stay away.

We've allowed our nation to become a barren wasteland of parking lots to support the possibility of major holiday rushes of customers only to see the big-box move away to set up camp elsewhere in only a few years.  And even when there is a crowd at the store, this clip most suits what many drivers face:

 

 

 

I know how anxious I get about parking in a crowded lot.  Given the value of time these days, if you do need to go to the "box" store, chances are you're picking up one specific thing or just wasting your money.  It's probably one of many stops you need to make ... perhaps you need toilet paper in an un-Godly ultrasized pack that won't even fit in the trunk ... there's a store or two for that.  You've probably got to make stops at the post office, the pharmacy, the hardware store, grab a bite to eat, pick up a good book, and visit the farmers market.  You're just like Kathy Bates, with so many things to do and not enough time, yet you still circle the lot for 20 minutes to get a space five feet closer to the door.  Parking in these lots is a competition ... and you are almost assured to be the loser.

So why is parking downtown such an issue?  Perhaps its because we've gotten so attuned to the big-box style of parking in one lot for one store.  When we get downtown, we expect that store to provide our parking needs.  This is the basic difference between Main Street and Wally World ... downtown is a community where we share while the big box is the mega corporation that just wants what's in your wallet.  We collectively own downtown and so no one person controls all the parking.  The big box controls everything you do and the way you do it when you touch their property.  Downtown is where we interact with neighbors.  The big box is where shopping carts are necessary because we buy things we don't need because EVERYONE there is loaded to the hilt, too.

 

In downtowns like Woodstock, Georgia, parking on the street isn't difficult and you can park once and go to the pharmacy, hardware store, restaurants, book store, art galleries, jewelry store, and more.  When I worked in this particular town, I always challenged the complainers to be cognizant of what they do at the big box.  I told them to start the timer when they pull in off the highway.  See how long it takes to get from the road to the space and to the front door.  I ask them to count the number of steps they take from car to cash register in that big box.  Chances are, if they do the same in a downtown, downtown will always win.  Parking isn't always curbside to your original downtown destination, but its that stroll through the community that brings more to your life.  (DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE MALL!)

 

One of the great stories of the past several years is Park-ing Day.  Communities across the nation take a parking space downtown and convert it into a greenspace for the day.  The idea is for the public to see that this one space doesn't impact the flow of commerce and can even bring an awareness to the over-asphalting of our lives.  In Woodstock, the GROW (Green Reaps Opportunities for Woodstock) committee of Main Street works with the local Elm Street Arts Center, elementary school and master gardeners to build something beautiful.  In 2012, the groups focused on Alice in Wonderland to build an upcycled Mad Hatter Tea Party:

 

 

It was beautiful, highlighted the arts, GROW, and donations rolled in from landscapers and local merchants to make it all possible.  Its also a great opportunity to give those that stop by a map of all your downtown parking ... even those off Main Street.  To start the conversation about parking and the need to be more conservative with our asphalt-happy developers, perhaps your community should think about Park-ing Day, Friday, September 20th.  For more information, visit http://parkingday.org/