[TGE-mail] Parking lots on Grand

Fri Mar 9 17:18:12 CST 2007

No of course it doesn't.  I feel the same as the rest of you.  I have
just attempted to point out some very important facts.  The main being
this is a temporary use. The second being when Commerce feels
comfortable with another very large capital investment they will move
forward with development of more retail at that location.  The general
feeling from this group seems to be that it will always be a parking
lot.  It won't, and it just takes time.  I would think everyone would
have learned that by now. 

Timothy Vogt
Vice President 
Millennium Restoration & Development Corp.
P: 314.772.9200
F: 314.772.9201

-----Original Message-----
From: tgena-bounces at lists.more.net [mailto:tgena-bounces at lists.more.net]
On Behalf Of Mcpherson, Amy S MVS Contractor
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2007 3:50 PM
To: tgena at lists.more.net
Subject: Re: [TGE-mail] Parking lots on Grand

Mr. Vogt,
I think you're right: we (the residents) don't have the financing to
back our
wants, but we live here.  Does this lack of money invalidate our
opinions?
Sincerely, 
Amy S. McPherson

These views are my own and not those of my employer.

-----Original Message-----
From: tgena-bounces at lists.more.net [mailto:tgena-bounces at lists.more.net]
On
Behalf Of Tim Vogt
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2007 2:42 PM
To: 'Bruce Ponman'; tgena at lists.more.net
Subject: Re: [TGE-mail] Parking lots on Grand

This is amazing to me.  I am wondering if anyone is actually reading my
emails.  Bruce if you and the others, that are so opposed to the
additional
parking, which will be good for business on South Grand, want to
approach
Commerce with a plan and financing to build retail and parking now I am
sure
they would listen.  Everyone wants and wants and wants, but I don't see
anyone willing to have the personal financial risk attached to your
wants.
Residential density as well as a dense commercial district are vital, I
agree
completely.  But until there is a sufficient demand additional parking
is
needed.  Many of you I am sure opposed the removal of the homes behind
the
Bread Company a few years ago.  And there still is not enough parking.
And
in regards to Absolutely Goosed and the other retail venues around that
business this additional parking will only help their businesses and
increase
pedestrian activity on the east side of Grand. Won't more consumers help
with
that problem?  Of course it will.  It is virtually imposible to find a
park
by Absolutely Goosed now.  I am sure if you were to talk with South City
Diner, they would tell you that the small lot to the south off Grand is
good
for their business.  And finally the area behind Commerce will be
developed
as Condos, and as I have stated over and over again this lot per
Commerce
will be temporary until the demand justifies the enormous amount of
capital
needed to build the planned retail and parking garage.sspp

Timothy Vogt

Vice President 

Millennium Restoration & Development Corp.

P: 314.772.9200

F: 314.772.9201

-----Original Message-----
From: tgena-bounces at lists.more.net [mailto:tgena-bounces at lists.more.net]
On
Behalf Of Bruce Ponman
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2007 1:38 PM
To: tgena at lists.more.net
Subject: Re: [TGE-mail] Parking lots on Grand

Tim,

I'm affraid you've got things turned around. Bottom line: if there
aren't
more businesses on South Grand, fewer people will make the trip and
additional parking spaces will go unused. People do not go to the CWE
(or the
East Village, for that matter) because there's excellent parking, they
go
because there are interesting businesses there. And restaurants in
particular
benefit from proximity to other restaurants; density is good far all.
Right
now the east side of Grand between Hartford and Absolutly Goosed is a
dead
zone after dark, unless you want to buy gas. This area, with little
light and
activity is a drag on existing businesses. A surface parking lot does
nothing
to address that problem. There is no reason why a row of retail space
can't
be built along Grand with parking directly behind, as was successfully
done
one block to the north behind the bread company. Why does the parking
lot
have to go to the street?

Bruce Ponman

TGE resident

PS. It's not at all clear that the studies you site have got it right.
The
following is taken from a review of Donald Shoup's book, The High Cost
of
Free Parking, that appeared in the Spring 2006 issue of the Next
American
City.

America's love affair with the automobile, and the toll it has taken on
both
the built and natural environments, has been well documented.
Surprisingly,
then, UCLA planning professor Donald Shoup's meticulously researched
book,
The High Cost of Free Parking, is the first to treat in depth the
subject of
automobile parking, the state in which the "average car spends about 95
percent of its life." It is a subject of great financial consequence:
according to figures developed by University of California at Davis
professor
Mark Delucchi and updated by Shoup to account for inflation and the
number of
motor vehicles owned in the United States, in 2002 the subsidy for
off-street
parking alone was between $127 billion and $374 billion. This figure is
roughly the same amount as our nation's Medicare or national defense
budgets-without including subsidies for the free on-street parking that
exists on most urban streets. 

While many American cities believe they suffer from a parking shortage,
the
real problem is that they have too much free parking. Over the last
sixty-plus years, planning for parking has meant planning to provide
parking
without cost, and America has provided enough to satisfy 99 percent of
all
automobile trips to the home, office, or shopping. This superabundance
has
had costs well beyond municipal subsidies: parking lots mar the urban
landscape, the high cost of providing parking makes developing
affordable
housing more difficult, and free parking skews transportation choices
toward
driving, thereby increasing congestion and pollution and encouraging
sprawl.
And because the cost of providing parking spaces is bundled into the
cost of
development, Shoup explains, this so-called "free" parking is actually
paid
for by everyone. Off-street parking, required by municipalities for
nearly
every land use, is expensive to provide. But rather than directly charge
drivers who use the parking, developers absorb the costs of providing
parking. The higher cost of development translates into higher rents in
residential and office buildings and into higher retail costs in
commercial
buildings. Not everyone chooses to drive; yet we all subsidize drivers
indirectly by paying higher costs passed on to us.

________________________________

From: tgena-bounces at lists.more.net [mailto:tgena-bounces at lists.more.net]
On
Behalf Of Tim Vogt
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2007 11:36 AM
To: MFord816 at cs.com; tgena at lists.more.net
Subject: Re: [TGE-mail] Parking lots on Grand

I have stated numerous times the result of those studies.  This is a lot
not
a vast ocean of parking.  Bottom line is that if there is not parking
there
will be no customers.  Everything happens in good time, and I am sure if
a
group of you wanted to approach Commerce to buy the building at the
corner of
Juniata and Grand and invest millions of your own dollars to build the
retail
and parking, they would probably be very receptive.

Timothy Vogt

Vice President 

Millennium Restoration & Development Corp.

P: 314.772.9200

F: 314.772.9201

-----Original Message-----
From: tgena-bounces at lists.more.net [mailto:tgena-bounces at lists.more.net]
On
Behalf Of MFord816 at cs.com
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2007 6:44 AM
To: tgena at lists.more.net
Subject: [TGE-mail] Parking lots on Grand

I have to weigh in on the side of the residents who are concerned about
parking lots fronting on Grand. The city is not suburbia - people live
here
because we don't want to see vast oceans of parking everywhere. And yes,
it does affect the walkability. There was a parking study done years ago
for the South Grand business district. Does anybody have the results of
that?
At what point did this street-fronting parking lot idea come into play?

Mary
26xx Louisiana

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