We’re planning to have a broader discussion about parking decks next year. I think we have a desire to mostly or entirely exit the parking business.
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If the city gets out of the parking business, we can all rest assured that using free parking as a tool to get folks into downtown will cease to exist. Also, wouldn’t the city lose all ability to control the pricing? I’m sure that these things are already being considered, but gouging on parking prices for special events could pose its own threats to downtown’s vitality, especially if there aren’t robust alternatives to driving.
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I think this is the wrong move - McLaurin (and other parking operators around town) are predators - doing away with reasonably-priced parking downtown (which realistically will only ever be provided by the city) will kill much of the momentum in the downtown recovery
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Agreed with some of the others on the subject around exiting the parking business. Chicago did something similar in 2008 which actually destroyed a lot of the city’s revenue for the forseeable future:
I’d absolutely want the city to retain control of these kinds of deals so that we don’t run into a similar situation here.
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To clarify my analogy, I did not intend to mean that Raleigh is one of the best downtowns in the league (country) and Cary has no comparison. The point is about economic cycles. Downtown Cary has been through 1 economic expansion cycle, and a super subsidized one at that, with massive QE and influx of people from wealthier cities driving up property assessments.
Raleigh has been an urban downtown for over 100 years, and still has many scars from past mistakes and turbulent times, including the riots of 2020.
Everything in DT Cary is shiny and new at the moment, and much of these new developments, retail spaces, apartments, etc. will reach a dated state in need of renovation at the same time in future.
It may be a moot point, because I don’t know if the US will ever have another true deflationary downturn again until the empire falls.
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My understanding was that the real problem of the Chicago parking meter sale is that it was done in such a shortsighted way. They gave a single company control of all parking meters in the city for 75 years for one lump-sum payment. The company, which now has a monopoly on parking meters until the year 2083, jacked up the prices and recouped their investment in a decade, so now it’s just a money-printing machine for them.
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I think that this is what most are concerned about.
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My eye roll is for how dumb this transaction was, not you @Mitch! How insanely short-sighted.
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this is a view atop Foshay tower in MInneapolis MN. pretty neat. i had never been there before and I just looked for the closest blue P sign I could find. it was private and charged from minute one. it was an hour or so rate and not terrible. if raleighs current scheme for 2 free hours to encourage traffic, even if by car at first, and then to feet. it might not be so bad.
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No, Shoup’s entire idea is to get people to quit driving around looking for free curb parking by discounting garage parking and hiking metered parking rates.
Besides, Raleigh only has 1,650 metered parking spaces, which is tiny relative to its physical size.
An idea from Pasadena is to turn over downtown parking revenue (and garage management) to local BIDs (i.e., DRA).
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I disagree on your take about paid parking at Raleigh’s suburban shopping malls. I’d say there is ZERO chance this ever happens. I mean I know “never say never” but it doesn’t seem to me that we will EVER see Fenton, North Hills, Crabtree, Cameron Village, etc charge for parking. I get that SouthPark charges but that’s even AFTER 3 hours, and it’s in a very high end neighborhood.
These Raleigh mall “drive-to-fake-urbanism” as people like to call it, need all the customers they can get, rather than putting up obstacles to getting customers, like paid parking would be, Raleigh is (and never will be) a dense metropolis like NY DC Chicago LA or Miami commercial districts that can get away with requiring paid parking to shop.
I Respectfully disagree here!
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SouthPark Mall does NOT charge for parking in Charlotte never has. They may have paid valet I can’t remember but they do not charge for parking. Some of the nearby office retail building away from the mall may charge but I have never paid for parking in Southpark area of Charlotte. Never.
As for North Hills they won’t either at least not in the next decade or so. Office tenants somewhat subsidize the parking there and while garage and structured parking is much more expensive the sales per square foot there at NH and the office tenants pay for it.
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Paid parking only came to NoVA retail centers when Metro arrived, to discourage park-and-ride commuters. Lenox and Perimeter malls in Atlanta have paid parking (Perimeter’s is only for the closest spaces) and they’re also along MARTA.
Malls in suburban, non-transit-served parts of LA and Miami often have paid parking, but those are much denser cities.
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I was at a mall near Mountain View, might have been Palo Alto, and they charged for parking. It’s not uncommon.
My bad. I was only acknowledging I read the other poster’s comment that it does charge after 3 hours:
I don’t shop there or have first hand knowledge, I assumed what he posted was accurate, sorry it wasn’t though. Doesn’t change my belief we will NEVER have density here that parking at shopping centers will require you to pay to park. People will shop elsewhere.
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Yes I agree Raleigh won’t in my lifetime have the density to charge for parking at North Hills, Crabtree etc. Maybe paid valet. Those projects were built with parking in mind. The hope would be less parking in the future with better transit options. The only mall I have ever been to that charged was the Bal Harbor Shops and even that I got validated with a small purchase. That was discourage unfettered beach parking.
That is why I like the free 2 hour parking during the day in downtown Raleigh. Probably not for retail shopping but dining for sure. It would allow someone to come downtown to eat lunch if they choose or meet a spouse down there for lunch. I will use it next time I am in Raleigh which will be soon to have lunch.
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I’ve seen that in my neighborhood before (but not recently)!
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I’ve seen it at Alamo! Fun to see a classic car get driven regularly
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