The Myth of Parking

See Rise and Sprawl as well.



There exists in Winnipeg a myth. A myth that parking is not available in ample quantities downtown. A myth perhaps rivaled by world-class counterparts such as the Loch Ness Monster and the Yeti.

Not like this is a new subje'ct, oh no, far from it. I've blogged about it several times, most notably here. What will no doubt be a rubber-stamping of approval for demolishing the Gran Exchange Annex building will represent another nail in Downtown Winnipeg's coffin.

For IF ONLY WE COULD PARK OUR CARS, downtown would be a THRIVING place!

I went down there. I saw for myself. I got out of my car and walked from Main Street to Waterfront, right past the aforementioned building. What is beside the Grain Exchange Annex, you ask? PARKING! What's across the street, a little closer to the river? PARKING! Let's ask ourselves a more revealing question about the nature of downtown and the myth of parking.

What is full in downtown Winnipeg?

......

Not parking lots. Not parkades.

If Winnipeg has such a parking shortage, then shouldn't every parking lot be full? Shouldn't every parkade be full? Every street spot, every metre, maxed out? Shouldn't parking be 5 dollars an hour?

But they aren't full. Even during the day, for you "oh it's true, the horror, I cannot find parking downtown during the day" people who leave such comments on my website. I was downtown just the other day, and witnessed with my own two eyes, surface parking lot after surface lot, half empty, only a single block away from Graham Mall. The Bay Parkade, easily half empty. I'm sure Portage Place Parkade was empty too. Every parkade I see downtown, has but a few cars in it, barely used, only ever full out of necessity during a sell-out event at the MTS Centre.

You need parking at the Grain Exchange building? For what? Where are you going to go? No parking in the East Exchange? Seriously? What's there that you're going to go to? Oh yeah, I forgot...

IF ONLY WE COULD PARK OUR CARS, downtown would be a THRIVING place!

Remember when I said I got out of my car and walked from Main Street to Waterfront? How many people even DO THAT?! The truth is, we could put up 6 parkades on every block and City Hall would still bulldoze historic buildings for parkades, because apparently, in Winnipeg, if your store doesn't have it's own parking lot then there is no parking available. I maintain that this attitude stems from the fact that everywhere else in this city, that is, suburbia, one drives their car directly to their destination and parks their car for free.

How is it that Corydon Avenue is devoid of parkades yet enjoys the most pedestrian traffic of anywhere in Winnipeg? How is it that Osborne Village is devoid of parkades yet is full of busy businesses?

....How is it that DOWNTOWN, an URBAN environment...is FULL of parking and parkades and is devoid of ANY pedestrian traffic?

We all know that downtown is currently basically a giant parking lot, where people come to during the day, and leave after they are done working. How do we change this to a place where people come to work during the day, and stay after to shop or enjoy themselves? By adding more parking?

The fact is that if we add more parking, then all we will have is MORE parking lots. LESS places to WALK TO! Who wants to walk by parkade after parkade, surface lot after surface lot? That's why people don't walk in between big box stores, they DRIVE! There's nothing to see here, move along! With all this parking there is no cohesiveness, there is nothing making downtown a single, unified destination.

How is it that in Winnipeg, we want a "revitalized" downtown with all kinds of little shops and restaurants and bars and such to walk to, how is it that we want an urban environment so bad, and destroy any chance of that ever existing by putting parking lots up everywhere?

The fact that anybody is even considering the idea that more parking downtown would somehow benefit Winnipeg, is pathetic. What really turns my stomach is something that Rise and Sprawl linked to the other day, from the Downtown Biz. I mean, these guys are supposed to be for downtown, right? You'd think they have a handle on the fact that Winnipeg is being choked to death with parking lots, but apparently not:

There is a strong desire for downtown parking to more adequately and further act as a tool or an enabler to further community economic development and downtown revitalization.


A tool? Ya don't say. Guess what, Downtown Biz people? Destroying your already existing streetscape for a parkade is not a tool for further economic community development, it's a tool for deconstructing an urban environment. If Downtown Biz was right, the WRHA building at Main and Logan would be a bustling centre of economic community development, what with that parkade and all. Who wants to walk beside a parkade? Even the Civic Centre Parkade is so horrendously atrocious it is more attractive to avoid walking on that side of the street.

Parkades are symbolic. They are symblolic because they represent something that will never change as long as we keep building parkades: the habit of Winnipeggers to park, go to their destination, return to their car, and leave. To continue building parkades is to continue to say "we don't want our downtown to be our destination, we want our parking spot to be."

It seems as though I be saying "downtown as a destination" forever.

Corydon is a destination. The Forks is a destination. Osborne Village is a destination.

Why isn't downtown a destination?

Consider this, Downtown Biz. How likely is "downtown revitalization" to happen if there are more parking spaces downtown than people living downtown?