Quote:
Originally Posted by bvpcvm
What you may not know, though, since it might have been built after you left, is that there's a huge garage in the Pearl (on 9th) and as far as I know it's almost completely empty.
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I know the garage you're referring to, though it might be a bit further east than 9th? Or not? It's often empty because it isn't where the people already are. Put that garage over by the brewery blocks and it'd be full. But it's not. It's out of the line of traffic patterns and it languishes.
People go where people go.
People don't go where they don't think to go.
It really is that simple.
There isn't enough to draw people toward that garage.
I realize this will come off as a terrible example, but, look at Starbucks. They study foot traffic, which explains why they can open a Starbucks within a block of another Starbucks and know it'll do well. On the other hand, you have streets like SW Jefferson between 12th and 13th where businesses struggle even though so many people live nearby. Why? Not enough foot traffic. I live in the neighborhood but I never think to walk west unless I'm headed to Goose Hollow, which means I never pass by that row of restaurants even though they're 2 blocks away.
It's pretty amazing when you look at a neighborhood - any neighborhood - and see where people go and see where they don't. Put a business even just one block off the beaten bath and you're in for a struggle.
My point? THAT PARKING GARAGE WON'T DO DIDLY FOR CENTENNIAL MILLS. Neither will a streetcar when the nearest stop is at 10th and Marshal. It's even further away if you're coming from NW rather than heading from downtown.
Centennial Mills has a poor location for anything less than a major tourist destination. And if you were going to put a major tourist destination there, you'd be better off putting that destination somewhere else, where people already are or where you have better access to freeways and mass transit. A pedestrian bridge across the Fields park would have been nice, but it wouldn't have been enough. Five lanes of traffic on Naito plus two rail lines minus MAX or direct streetcar stops with nothing major to the left or right of it, not to mention that there's no meaningful fun stuff anywhere near it. Centennial Mills is an island unto itself. Even just getting to it is a pain in the butt. Look at the Post Office site in the Pearl. It has such easy freeway access. Centennial Mills? No. As a major tourist site or shopping destination? Please.
It's. Not. Gunna. Happen.
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