I don't understand why everyone is always getting down on parking structures being put up. Downtown is not yet an island onto itself, where those on the island don't ever have any needs to get off because everything they need is there. Realistically people who live downtown still have friends and needs outside of downtown that they need cars to get to, how else are they going to get to lets say Santa Monica to go have drinks with friends, or get anywhere else around this huge city that they just might need to go to, that is not served by our metro system.
What providing a lot of housing without adequate parking is going to do, is leave a lot of unsold units, and pissed of residents who have to wake up every morning at 6am to move their cars off the street. In addition, if there is no parking around where you live, where the hell do you have guests park when they come over to visit. People will end up living in these great lofts, but be lonely as hell because none of their friends will want to have to pay 5 or 10 dollars to park in a lot every time they want to drop by.
I understand the argument that parking structures aren't great to look at, but lets be realistic we live in LA, parking is an absolute necessity. Don't get me wrong I would love to see this fact about LA change, but I highly doubt it will, any time soon if the transportation tax stealing Republican assholes in our state government have anything to do with it. Besides if parking structure is designed well, with retail on the ground floor etc., they are a whole lot better than a surface parking lot with a fence around it, of which there are many around downtown.
There is an upside to lots of parking structures, it makes visiting, shopping, and hanging out in downtown convenient. Think about the hundreds of thousands of cars that drive right by downtown everyday, on the 10, 110, 5, and the 60, and imagine if just a fraction of those cars got off the freeway and patronized businesses in downtown. The lack of retail, restaurants, and street life would instantly disappear. It is unrealistic to think that the new residents moving to downtown, will be able to support all the retail needed for a healthy street life, without the help of outside patrons. I work on Alvarado and 3rd, and have so many times wanted to go downtown for a quick lunch, or get a coffee from Coffee Bean or whatever, but decide not to because that means either I have to hunt for parking for fifteen minutes, or pay 5 or 7 bucks to park my car to run into a store and buy an item that costs less than what it costs to park.
What downtown needs is some city built and run parking structures, like what the city of Pasadena did for Old Town (those parking structures by the way are no eye-sore, with the retail on the ground floor, and brick built design). Go to Old Town on a Saturday afternoon and those parking structures are completely full, but more importantly Colorado St is full of pedestrians and street life. The most convenient thing about Pasadena’s structures is that there is no flat rate, and the first 90 minutes is free, which makes it a hell of a lot more convenient to lets say grab some frozen yogurt with your girlfriend, or stop by the apple store for half an hour. The structures in downtown would need to be placed in strategic locations like around 7th St, to help with the hopefully future restaurant row. Also around Broadway would be very important so that the Historic theatres can be easily accessed.
The argument is that the traffic downtown will become terrible if to many cars are coming down there. Firstly, downtown was built and designed for a high occupancy of vehicles, with its wide one-way streets, and numerous outlet options onto different freeways. Secondly, even if the traffic gets bad, who cares, if people choose to drive, so be it. If you don't want to sit in the traffic, then take the metro or better yet, move downtown and walk. It’s all about having options.
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