Topic: Cincinnati: Monthly Parking in Gateway Quarter

[BDRUF]

I currently am renting a condo in the Gateway Quarter and my building is maintained by Urban Sites. I rent a parking spot in our lot, and got a call yesterday that they are going to raise prices from $50.00 a month to $75.00 a month. I thought that $50 a month was to expensive, but was willing to pay it for the convenience. I want to shop my rate because $75 a month for non covered parking is absurd in OTR. Does anyone know of anywhere I can get cheaper parking?

[Jskinner]

I've lived around Washington Park for 20 years and have always parked on the street.  This is getting more difficult lately with the new businesses and now with Washington Park under construction, and I can see that sometime in the near future I will be asking the same question as you. 

The block I live in has something like 75 residential units, and not a single off-street parking space.  In the past it hasn't been too much of a problem because a majority of people here had no car. 

3CDC is going to add 450 parking spaces under Washington Park, but despite some mentions that they might offer discounted monthly parking for residents, I'm not holding my breath on that.  They also have just removed 70-80 street parking spaces around the perimeter of the park and the plan is to NOT ever allow parking around the park again.

I think that the secondary streets like Republic, Pleasant, Clay etc should be resident parking only, but even that won't solve the problem if every new resident has a car.

I have never investigated monthly parking in the Kroger garage or the WCET garage, but I would be interested in hearing what others know about this.

[diaspora]

I believe the WCET (Towncenter) garage is $40 for everyone.  There has been discussion to tear it down as the city owns it and i think it costs more to operate than they make.  Rates used to be $20 a month until recently.

[GCrites80s]

Why'd they do away with the parking around Washington Park? For construction of the garage underneath the park?

[jim uber]

FYI I pay less than $20/month for my parking space connected with my condo in TriDeca @ 13th and Vine.  What you are being asked to pay is indeed absurd.

[Jskinner]

Why'd they do away with the parking around Washington Park? For construction of the garage underneath the park?

It is gone now for construction, but they do not plan on allowing it after construction either.  I am not sure why but I think it has to do with aesthetics and keeping people from parking their and partying out of their car.  Anyway, I hope that they offer some kind of monthy parking at the underground garage, but if that got too popular it would hinder their fees collected during Mayfest etc... so who knows what will happen. 

[Sherman Cahal]

FYI I pay less than $20/month for my parking space connected with my condo in TriDeca @ 13th and Vine.  What you are being asked to pay is indeed absurd.

And my parking - covered in a garage, is free at the Emery at Walnut/Central Parkway. I know that they were raising rates across the board, but that is absurd. Not that I agree with many of their decisions of the past year - how well are some of their condos selling? *cough* Belmain (no parking, too expensive, et. al.)

[OCtoCincy]

Gateway Garage (sometimes referred to as kroger garage) is $90 a month.

The lot at 12th and vine is $70 a month.

[Scrabble]

1. Typo in the thread title

2. Jskinner has a point about residential parking on some streets. Someone should get on this project. It'd make those streets seem more...residential?

[OCtoCincy]

^ some streets, like most of Walnut, some of 13th and 14th that have no storefront retail shouldn't have meters.  On treets with store fronts it makes sense-- but not everywhere! 

The fact that we've metered all these streets almost forces developers to tear down a building to ensure more parking (or at least pass up on infill development options). 

[neilworms]

^-yeah totally doesn't.  It probably was a holdover from when the neighborhood was densly populated.

It seems that Cincinnati has a hard time getting how to make a perfect urban environment work.

[natininja]

Thanks, BallHatGuy! 

[BallHatGuy]

Fixed

[Ram23]

^-yeah totally doesn't.  It probably was a holdover from when the neighborhood was densly populated.

It seems that Cincinnati has a hard time getting how to make a perfect urban environment work.

I think it has to do with zoning.  Parking meters aren't placed in front of residential zoned properties, but I think most of those buildings are zoned to have commercial uses as well, even if they don't have them.

Why'd they do away with the parking around Washington Park? For construction of the garage underneath the park?

It is gone now for construction, but they do not plan on allowing it after construction either.  I am not sure why but I think it has to do with aesthetics and keeping people from parking their and partying out of their car.  Anyway, I hope that they offer some kind of monthy parking at the underground garage, but if that got too popular it would hinder their fees collected during Mayfest etc... so who knows what will happen. 

I'm pretty sure they're not going to allow parking where there has always been parking because that'd be 100 less cars that had to park in the garage their building.  It's just so the garage can make money.  Any urban designer will tell you that having cars parked along a street makes the sidewalk feel safer, as it provides a sense of security between quickly moving traffic and the pedestrians walking the sidewalk/sitting in the park.  Having the park lined with parked cars on the street all around it wouldn't be an eyesore, in fact it'd be the opposite.  The side effect being cheap meters don't raise as much money as expensive garage spots...

[Jskinner]

^totally agree.  I hate walking down a sidewalk with no buffer of parked cars.  It feels much less safe, unless barriers of some kind are installed.

The odd thing though is that the parking lane will still be there, just they have decided to not allow parking.  Instead they will be designated as loading only zones!  Kinda like the vacant lane along the south side of the park now, I suppose.  Seems messed-up.  If they are that committed to removing the parking, then they should at least widen the sidewalk 8 feet.

[natininja]

^ Or install bike paths.

[bbrown]

Here in Columbus, street parking in densely populated residential areas are limited to those who pay for a parking permit. Meters are located only near commercial areas or parks. I don't know how long they have done this for, but it seems to keep the original neighborhood intact without needing to tear buildings down for parking. My only concern with applying this to OTR is that it has so much ground floor retail with residential areas above. This could make it difficult to decide where permit parking should be, and where meters should be placed.

[joetraveler]

My gut feeling is the by getting rid of parking around the park you can get rid of people passing out food from the back of a van next to the park.  I guess at a minimum it moves it to the other side of the street.

[neilworms]

Here in Columbus, street parking in densely populated residential areas are limited to those who pay for a parking permit. Meters are located only near commercial areas or parks. I don't know how long they have done this for, but it seems to keep the original neighborhood intact without needing to tear buildings down for parking. My only concern with applying this to OTR is that it has so much ground floor retail with residential areas above. This could make it difficult to decide where permit parking should be, and where meters should be placed.

In Chicago it varies block to block.  You can circulate a petition and send off to your alderman (city official for your ward) if you want parking permits for your block, and if a certain amount of people approve they'll give you permit parking.  Generally meters are on the main drags, but unlike Cincinnati which developed pre-streetcar, most retail in Chicago is on the main drags where the streetcars used to run, the only exception being the inner intact neighborhoods like Wicker Park, Ukrainian Village, Pilsen etc - these hoods are pretty much arranged just like Northside, mostly main drag retail along old streetcar lines, with the occasional neighborhood bar/grocery on the lesser streets.

Would a system like this work for Cincy's more urban neighborhoods?  It seems that Cincy is so anti urban that they'd prefer just tearing stuff down to create parking . (which IMO is an awful paradox given the building stock in Cincy).

[Jskinner]

I don't think there is a resident parking program in any Cincinnati neighborhood, never has been.  Hard to start something new like that.  Also, in OTR many of the residential buildings are pretty big, plus they have a commercial storefront.  In our building for example, there are only 2 space directly in front, but 6 apartments and a storefront, so even with resident parking, there is not enough room if everyone has a car.

[Sherman Cahal]

I can see the residential permit parking zones being great for the area around the University of Cincinnati...

[Ram23]

I've never been a fan of residential parking permits.  Public streets are public right of way, I should have to pay more to park there, and my visitors shouldn't be banned from parking there, or need a guest pass of some sort.

I lived in Queens, NYC for awhile and parked on the street there.  With the alternate side rules, I probably spent an hour per week just finding a place to park, but I still wouldn't support permits; finding parking spots is just part of owning a car in an urban area.  Banning non-residents from parking in certain neighborhoods just seems sort of exclusionary.