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Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

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Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#121

Post by seanmcdirmid »

uoaei wrote: post #111
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing worse than having I5 is not having I5. There really isn't enough north-south corridors to replace it (15th, 99, east/west lake...really that's it), given that I5 is close to the water and a huge hill as it comes in across from UW. It is already non-viable to expect a 20-30 minute commute into the city. We saw what happened when the Palestine supporters blocked off I5 a few weeks ago...on a weekend with…

Can you articulate a cogent reason why people need to cross the city on such a thoroughfare just to live their lives?

You are located in the north of the city and need to get somewhere south of the city, or vice versa.

You only have a few roads to do that east or west of Lake Washington. In most cases, people aren't going to downtown Seattle, downtown Seattle is just in the way.

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#122

Post by ses1984 »

nerdbert wrote: post #86
whydoyoucare wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet no one in major European cities requires to bike like ten miles each way. The point is the size of American cities is vastly different to European ones, so what works that side of Atlantic rarely translates "as-is" here. (I am disappointed about this oft thrown around comparison, since my city reduced one lane on several major roads and created bike paths. Sadly, we now have major traffic jams and hardly any ut…

> I bet no one in major European cities requires to bike like ten miles each way. I am in Amsterdam, and lots of people bike 15km each way, including many students at the high schools my children attend.

Part of the problem is in america if you want to bike that far, you probably have to take some route designed for cars. It’s very stressful and in many cases very risky.

Local climate is a problem, too. It’s not fun to bike to work some days when it’s very hot and humid, and then in the other half of the year, deal with freezing rain.

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#123

Post by marssaxman »

tomcar288 wrote: post #105
wtp1saac wrote: post #4

Strong Towns has called a good amount of attention to the mandatory parking requirements in many cities (and shockingly, many downtowns). Thankfully, it seems a fair number of cities are removing such restrictions, but hopefully it becomes more widespread. In general I hope the US can urbanize, the older I get the more I realize it’s not really enjoyable living in this country. I don’t think I want hyper dense, but h…

you don't necessarily need to urbanize. just make things more walkable. Instead of having 1 large library or grocery store the size of a theme park, have 10 smaller ones in walking distance instead.

That's what functional urbanization looks like! From where I live in central Seattle, there are four grocery stores within ten minutes' walk. They all have parking lots, but I rarely use them; instead of buying a lot of groceries at once, it's easier to pop on by every day or two and just carry a bag home. There are no skyscrapers here, it's all townhouses and low-rise apartment buildings, but that's all we need - if we could fill the city limits with neighborhoods like this, there'd be no need for any more sprawl.

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#124

Post by uoaei »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #121
uoaei wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you articulate a cogent reason why people need to cross the city on such a thoroughfare just to live their lives?

You are located in the north of the city and need to get somewhere south of the city, or vice versa. You only have a few roads to do that east or west of Lake Washington. In most cases, people aren't going to downtown Seattle, downtown Seattle is just in the way.

Why are those services not available in the north of the city? This is as much a planning issue as traffic is.

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#125

Post by bluGill »

The problem I have is most cities have plenty of green parks already. In a few places they could use a new park, but in general there are far more parking lots (often 50% of a city is parking lot!) than there is need for green space. Much better is tear up a parking lot and replace it with a building that lets people do something in the city other than pretend they are in a rural area. Nothing wrong with rural areas and parks, but there is more to life than those. Put in more apartments, offices, restaurants, opera houses - all those other things that make a city great.

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#126

Post by ayberk »

tomcar288 wrote: post #103

I think he really hit the nail on head here: "Part of this is a result of poor planning and ordinance-making that long ago overcompensated for the wide use of automobiles. Henry Grabar, a staff writer at Slate, mentions this in a book published last year, Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World. ”On a national level, certainly, there’s far more parking than we need,” Grabar said in an interview. “There are at…

I'm still reading this book, but so far it's been one of the few books I'd recommend to anyone. I try to be as stoic as possible, but contents of this book has managed to actually anger me. It makes it so clear that how much corruption and bad policies impact our lives.

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#127

Post by sfpotter »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #107
sfpotter wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Creating I-5 was really contentious at the time. It destroyed neighborhoods. My family has lived in the area for several generations and my parents can attest to this. Lidding it would be great, but removing it would be better. There are loads of people who live in the suburbs north and south of Seattle and expect to be able to drive 20-30 miles each way day-in-day-out to commute. If the city continues to grow, this…

The only thing worse than having I5 is not having I5. There really isn't enough north-south corridors to replace it (15th, 99, east/west lake...really that's it), given that I5 is close to the water and a huge hill as it comes in across from UW. It is already non-viable to expect a 20-30 minute commute into the city. We saw what happened when the Palestine supporters blocked off I5 a few weeks ago...on a weekend with…

There are no major highways through Manhattan. The city is better for it.

Drive around the lake if you need to get past the city.

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#129

Post by alexanderchr »

nradov wrote: post #82
apendleton wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is solvable with parking permit programs. Make street parking in those surrounding neighborhoods resident-only. And then people considering living in the "underparked" neighborhood who need parking will have no alternative but to select units that include parking, or live in another neighborhood (and if enough people opt not to live there, developers will include more parking to satisfy demand). This is a proble…

Where do guests park when they come to visit?

Where I’ve lived it’s usually been solved by letting anyone park there for a higher fee. Residents get to park at a big discount or for free.

Or you can hand out guest passes to residents.

Re: Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees

#130

Post by jiggliemon »

I live on the border of an urban forest.

I’ve come to realize that urban forests double as homeless camps. My homeless camp has is rife with crime, drug over doses, violence and fire. Last month I’ve had a leaf blower stolen, my car window broken, and an explosion due to them throwing a propane tank into a camp fire.

Since they’re tucked into a forest - the city won’t take any action. The city does take action on homeless camps that are more visible. I don’t mean to conflate urban forests with homelessness. However that’s very much the case here in Austin, Tx.

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