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I live in a small city (Alameda, CA) that has a couple of concentrated "downtown" areas with limited parking. The construction of a 6-story municipal parking ga

by jpm_sd 8y ago

I live in a small city (Alameda, CA) that has a couple of concentrated "downtown" areas with limited parking. The construction of a 6-story municipal parking garage as part of a large renovation of the old movie theater complex in 2008 was beneficial to all of the surrounding businesses. It seems like this is a pretty good general strategy, it just requires a large up-front investment by the city. More details: http://www.alamedatheatres.com/historic-theatre/ http://www.alamedatheatres.com/historic-theatre/ https://www.overaa.com/projects/alameda-historic-theatre-restoration-civic-center-parking-garage https://www.overaa.com/projects/alameda-historic-theatre-res...

iso1337 8y ago
What would have been even better is investment in a BART line that runs to Alameda. Getting on and off the island is horrible due to there being only 3-4 bridges/tunnels (IIRC). Of course, that would have been a larger up-front investment but one that they're now looking at. http://www.oaklandmagazine.com/May-2018/BART-in-Alameda/ http://www.oaklandmagazine.com/May-2018/BART-in-Alameda/
- jpm_sd 8y ago
  The theater/parking renovations totaled around $37 million. Bringing BART to Alameda is, according to your link, a 12 to 15 BILLION dollar project. That's 300 to 400 times more expensive.
  - mercutio2 8y ago
    That is an uncharitable comparison. 12 to 15 billion is the cost to build an entirely new transbay tube. The cost to tunnel BART from Oakland to Alameda would be a small fraction of that. I’d certainly shop in Alameda vastly more frequently if it had a BART station. Heck, my wife would probably insist we move there, the reason we don’t live there is I insist that we live near a BART station.