^ While I agree, I think you guys are sort of missing my point.
I don't have a problem with rear parking, and in theory I don't even mind a REAR entrance to shops (bear with me here). What I MIND, however, is when the store owner CLOSES the sidewalk entrance and forces pedestrians/bus riders, etc to walk around back and use the rear entrance. It kills the sidewalk, and it's basically a strip mall in disguise.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
Also, try telling someone who just parked their car, in the middle of a snowstorm, or late at night, that they need to walk around the building through some dank little corridor to get to the front. It's not pleasant, it's not safe, and it will only discourage commercial activity and development.
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^ On the same token, is it fair to ask a
pedestrian in "the middle of a snowstorm, late at night" to walk around back to get to the entrance? I can easily flip that argument around, you see. It's just a matter of who you want to roll your red carpet out to--drivers or pedestrians.
In my experience in some parts of Queens and NYC suburbs (where the same model of parking behind new stores applies), one can clearly see that shop owners prefer to use 1 entrance--the parking one. And the shop turns its back on the sidewalk.
Take an extreme example--the Aldi which is part of Uptown's Wilson Yard development. To make the community happy, renderings showed a nice sidewalk entrance. But the actual store? THe pedestrian gets the shaft--no sidewalk entrance, just an entrance to the rear parking lot. Broadway gets a brick wall.