Joe Hicks: We need more people downtown, not more parking

Whenever there is any discussion about downtown Galesburg, whether it is about new businesses or possible changes to the built environment, the topic of parking almost always comes up. I’ve heard from many people that they believe there isn’t enough parking downtown currently.

Now I don’t want to rag on anyone’s genuine concerns, but there is SO much parking downtown. We have many free lots and on-street parking on both sides of all the streets. We even have a free lot just a couple blocks away like the one at 170 North Cherry Street that is hardly used at all. There is loads of parking around. There are maybe two or three days in the whole year where all the parking downtown is even close to being used up.

But if the concern is actually “there isn’t enough parking next to where I want to go” then there may be some merit to that. There are only so many spots right in front of the places we want to go. Parking has been so easy to come by downtown for so many years that if we aren’t able to get a spot right in front of the place we want to go to it feels like there isn’t any parking.

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I understand there are people who aren't able to walk far so they need those close up spots, and if they aren’t available they may not be able to go where they want. But the solutions at this time aren’t to tear down more buildings to make parking lots or to build a parking garage. On average a paved parking spot, just one spot, not a whole lot, costs about $5,000. One spot of a parking garage costs on average $20,000. It’s probably even more now with increased material prices, it's very expensive to build any new parking not even factoring in the cost to acquire land.

Here’s how we should handle parking downtown in my opinion: For now at current levels of usage we can keep things as they are. If there is demonstrated need at specific spots we could add more spots for those who use handicapped parking.

Then after that if there are spots where throughout the day there are constantly not enough spaces open then we can install parking meters. I know paying for parking isn’t fun, but if there are never enough free spots because it’s an in-demand spot then the only way to get more spots to open up without building more parking is to make people pay for them.

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The people who don’t want to pay can park farther away and walk. The people who need to park close can pay. And if we really want to we could say that handicap parkers can park in metered spots for free. Just a generation or two ago downtown had meters; we can return to it if we need to.

Then if there is enough demand all over downtown all day then we can have meters everywhere. And then if it’s still filled up then we can raise prices. And only then once people are willing to pay a good amount for parking should we think about building a parking garage. Then the public will have shown it is already willing to pay a high price for parking that would more than offset the cost of building a garage. If it’s especially economical a private business may even build one on its own not costing the city a dime.

Having a problem with parking on that scale would be a good problem to hopefully have someday in the future. That would mean that there is so much interest in people going downtown that they’ll pay for close parking, walk blocks after parking further away, or just walk or bike downtown. We want that, we should want the problem of difficult parking because that would mean our downtown is thriving.

Having free and completely open parking right where you want is a sign that things may not be thriving. We should want a downtown that people will walk blocks to. We should want a downtown where all of our free public lots are filled everyday and on the weekends and nights. We’re not there yet, so until then I don’t think concerns outside of parking for the elderly or handicapped should be worried about too much.

The problem we should be trying to solve is how to get more activity and demand for downtown Galesburg, not being first worried about the parking for those hypothetical new people.

Joe Hicks is a Galesburg native and is the writer of the Substack newsletter: Inland Nobody. He is a contributor to the Many Paths column. 

This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Joe Hicks: We need more people downtown Galesburg IL, not more parking