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Parking problem downtown - too much of it? Not enough?


GRDadof3

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I read where they want to have no parking at bus stops. This should increase the flow of traffic, because who wants to sit behind a bus? I had a car going into my lane the other day, on Wealthy Street, going around a bus.....The only problem, is if I didn't hit the brakes, it would have been a head on!  28th street needs bus pull over lanes at bus stops, while I am on this subject. It's too busy of a street not to have them!

Now, if we could only train the bus drivers to not block the road, while stopped at a bus stop.....They tend to angle in and block the road, so they can pull out into traffic easily, but that is illegal, to block a traffic lane...

I wonder if City Hall read this....

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/14/2018 at 6:19 PM, GRDadof3 said:

Ugh.  What is  the point of all the studies, polls, community outreach, blah blah.  This is, yet again, this administration undermining its departments and employees rather than standing up for them to the "stakeholders".

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3 hours ago, whitemice said:

Ugh.  What is  the point of all the studies, polls, community outreach, blah blah.  This is, yet again, this administration undermining its departments and employees rather than standing up for them to the "stakeholders".

The "CEO" of the city has to balance the ideas of the departments and employees with the needs of the "customers." I don't see anything wrong with him getting his arms around these issues before more major changes are made. You're probably the first person I've heard complain about this move, most people I talk to are saying that it was time to slow down a bit. 

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  • 1 month later...
5 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

Made the mistake of NOT taking Uber or Swyft downtown for a concert at 20 ML last night. EVERY ramp was full, except Pearl and Ionia. The nice 5 block walk through ice, uncleared sidewalks, mountains of slush and giant slush puddles was fun. :)

 

I was driving back from Alpine last night around 6pm, and from the Deltaplex (GR Drive game) to DeVos Place (Auto Show) the Arena (bull-riding competition) there were just tons of people out! A lot of the restaurants looked pretty packed as well.

 

And on top of that there was something at 20 Monroe too?  Everyone must have turned-out to break the cabin fever.

 

Just think of the crowds when the movie complex opens. A nice problem to have!

 

 

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17 hours ago, GR_Urbanist said:

I was driving back from Alpine last night around 6pm, and from the Deltaplex (GR Drive game) to DeVos Place (Auto Show) the Arena (bull-riding competition) there were just tons of people out! A lot of the restaurants looked pretty packed as well.

 

And on top of that there was something at 20 Monroe too?  Everyone must have turned-out to break the cabin fever.

 

Just think of the crowds when the movie complex opens. A nice problem to have!

 

 

Oh agreed. There was a comedy show at the BOB too apparently. We even stopped at two valet parking stands and both said their lots were full. I will not drive downtown on a weekend night again, lol. Either UBER or Lyft. Luckily the concert had an opening act which we didn't care about so the extra 20 minutes driving around didn't hurt us. It will be good when the Warner Building ramp and Studio C ramps open too. 

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  • 3 months later...

Speaking of parking this has been bothering me for a few weeks.  Note in the picture below the top portions of all 3 city ramps along Ionia/Ottawa are always completely empty, at least since I've been perched in my ivory tower up here.  Am I missing something?  Or is it possible current parking options aren't being used efficiently at the moment?  I guess my impression was I should see a lot more cars in these spaces based on the rhetoric surrounding parking.  GRCC's ramp on Bostwick always looks like this too, but that's a bit different of a situation.

46938997425_4c684e8005_c.jpg

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2 hours ago, MJLO said:

Speaking of parking this has been bothering me for a few weeks.  Note in the picture below the top portions of all 3 city ramps along Ionia/Ottawa are always completely empty, at least since I've been perched in my ivory tower up here.  Am I missing something?  Or is it possible current parking options aren't being used efficiently at the moment?  I guess my impression was I should see a lot more cars in these spaces based on the rhetoric surrounding parking.  GRCC's ramp on Bostwick always looks like this too, but that's a bit different of a situation.

46938997425_4c684e8005_c.jpg

I get what you are saying.  If there are a spots available every day, why isn't the city leasing out more monthly passes for these ramps?  The number of visitors for these ramps seem to be quite a bit less than planned but the daily workers downtown can't find a spot without having to pay $20 a day.

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59 minutes ago, Sparty97 said:

I get what you are saying.  If there are a spots available every day, why isn't the city leasing out more monthly passes for these ramps?  The number of visitors for these ramps seem to be quite a bit less than planned but the daily workers downtown can't find a spot without having to pay $20 a day.

Well I'd imagine during typically daily fluctuations, not all workers that pay for spots will be in them everyday, so fluctuations in volume I would expect.   Most visitors downtown use these spaces on off hours when there are plenty available. 

 It is my understanding availability of parking is suppressing office demand.  The number of spaces on the top of these ramps easily represent more than 10% of all spaces in those ramps.  I don't know all the details and numbers but it just feels like there's a gap somewhere.

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I would suspect there are at least hundreds of spaces that businesses are holding onto even though they do not use them.  This is necessary because they need to have parking for new hires and cannot wait 12 months for those spots.  I worked for one such business employing 25 people and we kept +/- 5 spaces in reserve as needs fluctuated.   Assuming others are doing the same that adds up fast!

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So I think I've asked this question before but.....   Can't they just add additional floors to the existing parking structures?  Perhaps they weren't designed for that but they are solid reinforced concrete and I'm sure can hold a lot more additional weight.  I think it's just a waste to build all of these five or six story parking ramps all around the city.  Another option would be to consolidate the structures... tearing down one, building a huge one, tearing down the other near it and selling the land.  I know the latter will probably never happen.

It just kind of irks me that we have so many five story ugly parking garages.  For example, Ottawa/Fulton ramp and Monroe Center ramp or Louis/Campau & JW & Amway ramps

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9 minutes ago, Cityite said:

I would suspect there are at least hundreds of spaces that businesses are holding onto even though they do not use them.  This is necessary because they need to have parking for new hires and cannot wait 12 months for those spots.  I worked for one such business employing 25 people and we kept +/- 5 spaces in reserve as needs fluctuated.   Assuming others are doing the same that adds up fast!

I think "hundreds" of spaces is a stretch but yes companies do probably buy extra spaces for visitors, contractors, etc.. 

1 minute ago, Floyd_Z said:

So I think I've asked this question before but.....   Can't they just add additional floors to the existing parking structures?  Perhaps they weren't designed for that but they are solid reinforced concrete and I'm sure can hold a lot more additional weight.  I think it's just a waste to build all of these five or six story parking ramps all around the city.  Another option would be to consolidate the structures... tearing down one, building a huge one, tearing down the other near it and selling the land.  I know the latter will probably never happen.

It just kind of irks me that we have so many five story ugly parking garages.  For example, Ottawa/Fulton ramp and Monroe Center ramp or Louis/Campau & JW & Amway ramps

Agreed, I think it's definitely something that should at least be explored. The cost to add more floors has to be considerably less than procuring land and building from scratch. 

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1 hour ago, Cityite said:

I would suspect there are at least hundreds of spaces that businesses are holding onto even though they do not use them.  This is necessary because they need to have parking for new hires and cannot wait 12 months for those spots.  I worked for one such business employing 25 people and we kept +/- 5 spaces in reserve as needs fluctuated.   Assuming others are doing the same that adds up fast!

Welcome, BTW. :)

I used to park in the JW ramp and I'd have to park on the roof if I came in a little later (dentist appt, etc). Wonder if the privately owned ramps are more efficient. 

Does the city "overbook" monthly spots at all? Like, if they say they have 300 monthly spots available in a ramp that holds 400, do they actually lease 325, knowing that there will be some fluctuation. I'm thinking of how airlines overbook, although that's probably a really lousy example because airlines stink. But I bet there is some percentage that could be oversold.

Joe

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10 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

Welcome, BTW. :)

I used to park in the JW ramp and I'd have to park on the roof if I came in a little later (dentist appt, etc). Wonder if the privately owned ramps are more efficient. 

Does the city "overbook" monthly spots at all? Like, if they say they have 300 monthly spots available in a ramp that holds 400, do they actually lease 325, knowing that there will be some fluctuation. I'm thinking of how airlines overbook, although that's probably a really lousy example because airlines stink. But I bet there is some percentage that could be oversold.

Joe

If you go by any of the city ramps during the day, it will say "56 spots available" or something to that effect, on most of them. Rarely do they say "FULL" during the day, but in the evening it's now pretty commonplace for most of the ramps to be full, when there are multiple events going on. 

My guess is that's why you see the roofs empty. But the problem is is that you can't give those away to monthly permit parkers, because then there would be a lot less visitor parking. And the downtown business owners who rely on visitors would freak (rightfully so). You want people to come downtown and stay downtown for a while, which ramps are for, which is exactly the opposite of how they treat metered parking. 

 

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14 hours ago, Floyd_Z said:

So I think I've asked this question before but.....   Can't they just add additional floors to the existing parking structures?  Perhaps they weren't designed for that but they are solid reinforced concrete and I'm sure can hold a lot more additional weight.  I think it's just a waste to build all of these five or six story parking ramps all around the city.  Another option would be to consolidate the structures... tearing down one, building a huge one, tearing down the other near it and selling the land.  I know the latter will probably never happen.

It just kind of irks me that we have so many five story ugly parking garages.  For example, Ottawa/Fulton ramp and Monroe Center ramp or Louis/Campau & JW & Amway ramps

Floyd, I've wondered the same thing.  From aerial views it appears that most of these structures have stairs going up to an invisible parking deck.  It seems like they were built with the idea of at least one more level.  

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  • 5 months later...

It’ll be interesting to see if anyone partners with the city on this one. It’d be an “easy” way to get some height for office or residential as you’d get a six story head start. 

Speaking of parking in general, has the monthly parking crunch eased at all now that the studio park parking ramp has opened?

Joe

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11 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

It’ll be interesting to see if anyone partners with the city on this one. It’d be an “easy” way to get some height for office or residential as you’d get a six story head start. 

Speaking of parking in general, has the monthly parking crunch eased at all now that the studio park parking ramp has opened?

Joe

It would make sense for CWD to partner on this project, since the are right next door.   They are the company that previously had an agreement to purchase the property to build an 8 story office building.  Maybe this go around, partnering with the city on the property would make it work?

https://www.grbj.com/articles/75931-cwd-real-estate-investment-plans-eight-story-building-downtown

 

CWD-Real-Estate-Investment-50-Louis-adjacent-rendering.jpg

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1 hour ago, mpchicago said:

It would make sense for CWD to partner on this project, since the are right next door.   They are the company that previously had an agreement to purchase the property to build an 8 story office building.  Maybe this go around, partnering with the city on the property would make it work?

https://www.grbj.com/articles/75931-cwd-real-estate-investment-plans-eight-story-building-downtown

My impression has been that CWD has their hands full with their current portfolio.  Doesn't appear as if they are in growth mode at the moment, mostly focusing on bringing the buildings they own to current standards and filling them up?

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