View Single Post
  #36  
Old Posted Jan 8, 2012, 7:48 PM
wburg's Avatar
wburg wburg is offline
Hindrance to Development
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 2,402
BrianSac: Where did you get that bit about AEG? I have heard that the group proposing an arena hope they will put in that amount, comparable to what they put in for the Kansas City arena (in return for AEG having first dibs on profits from KC arena operations) but so far they haven't committed a cent--and if they did, you can bet it would be front-page news.

If the focus for midtown/downtown is the people who live there, then policy should focus on livability for the people who live here, not being a circus attraction for visitors. Not that being an attraction and being livable are mutually exclusive--but it does require management, both for parking and for noise.

In West Los Angeles along Sunset, there are private parking lots with employees waving people in every night, and street parking is metered until 2 AM--then there is no parking allowed 2-4 AM for street cleaning. When you leave the commercial corridor, you enter residential areas, mostly low-rise apartments and single-family housing. NO non-residential parking is allowed from 7 PM to 7 AM. Buses run until late at night.

In Wrigleyville along Clark Street, a thriving district with a baseball field and a nightclub district, again, there is limited metered on-street parking in commercial areas, private parking structures, a handful of commercial off-street parking, and public transit (both buses and the El.) Again, walk a half-block off the commercial corridor and you find low-rise residential buildings, single-family and apartments, with NO non-residential parking from 6 PM to 6 AM.

This sort of policy is useful on several fronts: it keeps the nearby residential areas comparatively free of night-time revelers, and encourages them to park nearer the club (often in pay lots) or take transit (which runs all night.) The residential areas benefit from close access to commercial uses--not just nightclubs and bars, but grocery stores, drugstores, clothing stores and every other conceivable retail use--but the simple act of limiting parking to residents means they are relatively quiet and safe, making them far more attractive as places to live.

In San Franciso, SoMa clubs faced a lot of pressure from residents who moved into the neighborhood during the dot-com boom, as old industrial and commercial buildings started converting to residential lofts. It took some dealing, but today if you visit SoMa nightclubs there are lots of signs mentioning "Please respect our neighbors by being quiet outside!" and club security is proactive about preventing a lot of noise from escaping the club and keeping visitors civil while outside.

In all of these neighborhoods, visitors are important but residents are even more important. It is already the case here in Sacramento: an MBA survey found that 50% of business in summer (and more like 66% of business in winter) at Midtown businesses came from people in the Midtown ZIP code, 95816, or adjacent ZIP codes. Considering that these people make up about 5% of the region, it means that each central city resident contributes as much as 15 people from farther away! Every additional central city resident is equal to 15 visitors in economic effect, PLUS the economic value of their presence in the city as renters or homeowners. And we could easily double the population of the central city under current zoning codes!

Downtown and Midtown can take lessons from this. People who are going to spend lots of money on a play, on an expensive dinner, on drinks or for a show will drop a few bucks to park their car in a secure parking lot, if they are discouraged from parking in the "free" spaces in nearby residential areas. The above examples prove that it can be done, and other cities do it. The only folks who would be actively discouraged from visiting are those who are NOT there to spend money!

Last edited by wburg; Jan 9, 2012 at 12:13 AM. Reason: Correcting ZIP info
Reply With Quote