Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim D
Secondly, when is the City going to wake up and build parking in this part of the city? I know a lot of folks that just won't visit for dinner because they really don't want to drive around looking for street parking. There is one 22 space lot, and after that you are on your own. Why is the city always reactive and not proactive. And if the city doesn't want to build the parking then when these large Apartment developments want to move in, they should be required to provide both tenant and some public parking.
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We live nearby (in Morningside) and we drive to Lawrenceville pretty often on the weekends. We've never not been able to find a space within 2-3 blocks of our destination - though admittedly we typically only go during the daytime or early evening, since we have kids. I actually think it's much harder to find a spot to park in Shadyside, despite public lots and garages existing around Walnut Street.
Regardless, while I'm not aware of the stats for the Lawrenceville apartment buildings in general, I do know that currently established residential parking minimums under zoning typically result in a good deal of empty stalls in these buildings, meaning they're over-engineered. Just shifting the vacant spaces to public parking though wouldn't work, as you'd need to install payment systems and the like, and probably engineer different garage entrances.
Not to mention it's dubious that the city should be incentivizing people to drive to Lawrenceville. The retail does just fine there mostly driven by local residents, and Butler Street is not engineered for high traffic flows.
As a former resident of Lawrenceville, I'm very glad the neighborhood has avoided calls for setting up permit parking for residents. The example of what happened to South Side woke people up to the dangers of being so concerned about a space in front of your house it destroys local commerce.