4 ms·

Not a Portland resident, but I'd assume it reduces the blight of parking lots and makes neighborhoods more walkable?

by chris_7 10y ago

WalterSear 10y ago
If the neighbourhood isn't commuteable without a car, the worst-case scenario is to the remove parking and expect everyone to just manage.
- chris_7 10y ago
  The inability to build densely due to parking requirements is one of the things that makes neighborhoods pedestrian/bike commute hostile in the first place. If parking is truly an issue, the market can of course solve it with private parking lots.
  - WalterSear 10y ago
    >If parking is truly an issue, the market can of course solve it with private parking lots. No, it can't - it doesn't.
    - davidw 10y ago
      > No, it can't. I think some supporting evidence would be good in your post. Is there some kind of market failure at work here? Absent regulations preventing it, I see no reason people couldn't build a parking garage or something. Here's a parking garage in the oldest, densest part of Padova, where I used to live: https://goo.gl/maps/sS3dds2h3yt https://goo.gl/maps/sS3dds2h3yt - it's not cheap (they use an elevator system!) but someone built it and operates it at a profit.
      - WalterSear 10y ago
        Supporting evidence is needed to support the idea that 'the market' could be, but isn't, solving something that is endemically not being solved. "Someone built an expensive garage" doesn't demonstrate solving anything.
        davidw 10y ago
        > something that is endemically not being solved. It is "not being solved" in a system that bears little resemblance to a free market. Housing and cities are one of the most tightly regulated markets in the US. The level of detail that most zoning codes go into in the US is mind boggling. For instance, with regard to parking minimums, here in Bend, we have this (which was probably cut and pasted from some other town): > "Beauty parlor and Barber shop: 3 spaces for each of the first 2 beauty or barber chairs, and 1½ spaces for each additional chair" That is most emphatically not what I would call a 'free market', but rather detailed and specific government regulation. I'm not a libertarian and I do not think markets solve all the world's problems - far from it. However it is undeniable when you start looking into the details, that these markets are very, very far from "free markets".
  - superuser2 10y ago
    The inability to build densely comes from height limits and mandatory separation of residential and commercial districts. Converting parking lots to apartments just gives you more apartments on the same footprint. It doesn't bring the workplaces of the people in those apartments any closer.
    - TheCoelacanth 10y ago
      Public transportation is most workable with high population densities. Getting rid of parking lots will make it easier to service the area with non-car forms of transportation.

Not a Portland resident, but I'd assume it reduces the blight of parking lots and makes neighborhoods more walkable?

by chris_7 10y ago

Not a Portland resident, but I'd assume it reduces the blight of parking lots and makes neighborhoods more walkable?

If the neighbourhood isn't commuteable without a car, the worst-case scenario is to the remove parking and expect everyone to just manage.

chris_7 10y ago
The inability to build densely due to parking requirements is one of the things that makes neighborhoods pedestrian/bike commute hostile in the first place. If parking is truly an issue, the market can of course solve it with private parking lots.
- WalterSear 10y ago
  >If parking is truly an issue, the market can of course solve it with private parking lots. No, it can't - it doesn't.
  - davidw 10y ago
    > No, it can't. I think some supporting evidence would be good in your post. Is there some kind of market failure at work here? Absent regulations preventing it, I see no reason people couldn't build a parking garage or something. Here's a parking garage in the oldest, densest part of Padova, where I used to live: https://goo.gl/maps/sS3dds2h3yt https://goo.gl/maps/sS3dds2h3yt - it's not cheap (they use an elevator system!) but someone built it and operates it at a profit.
    - WalterSear 10y ago
      Supporting evidence is needed to support the idea that 'the market' could be, but isn't, solving something that is endemically not being solved. "Someone built an expensive garage" doesn't demonstrate solving anything.
      - davidw 10y ago
        > something that is endemically not being solved. It is "not being solved" in a system that bears little resemblance to a free market. Housing and cities are one of the most tightly regulated markets in the US. The level of detail that most zoning codes go into in the US is mind boggling. For instance, with regard to parking minimums, here in Bend, we have this (which was probably cut and pasted from some other town): > "Beauty parlor and Barber shop: 3 spaces for each of the first 2 beauty or barber chairs, and 1½ spaces for each additional chair" That is most emphatically not what I would call a 'free market', but rather detailed and specific government regulation. I'm not a libertarian and I do not think markets solve all the world's problems - far from it. However it is undeniable when you start looking into the details, that these markets are very, very far from "free markets".
- superuser2 10y ago
  The inability to build densely comes from height limits and mandatory separation of residential and commercial districts. Converting parking lots to apartments just gives you more apartments on the same footprint. It doesn't bring the workplaces of the people in those apartments any closer.
  - TheCoelacanth 10y ago
    Public transportation is most workable with high population densities. Getting rid of parking lots will make it easier to service the area with non-car forms of transportation.