St. Paul: Lowertown doesn't have a parking problem

Lowertown in St. Paul doesn't have a parking problem. I take that back. It does have a parking problem – there's too much of it.

Here's a snapshot of downtown St. Paul. These blue spaces represent off-street surface parking lots and parking garages; but do not highlight on-street or underground parking. Also, they represent only, to the best of my knowledge, available public parking. There are a few more small parking lots but Google Maps limited me to 75 shapes per map.

I bring this up because there's a debate going on in Lowertown about removing up to 22 on-street parking spaces to expand a sidewalk to accommodate outdoor dining.

If you think that 22 spots is a mere drop in the bucket, you'd be right.

Grid.mn brings up that "It seems remarkable that business owners not only want less parking, but are willing to pay $300,000 to do it." This is true. The most important thing to note is that it seems like a change in attitude, at least from the business stand-point, of how city life should operate.

The opposition to the sidewalk expansion isn't without a good argument; "Some downtown residents have said that parking lanes act as a buffer between moving vehicles and pedestrians on the sidewalk and that removing those lanes could be a safety hazard." [Pioneer Press]. This is a good argument straight out of the Jeff Speck Walkable City Playbook. It's true. Cars can create a great pedestrian buffer zone.

In my mind, this whole debate is moot and has leapfrogged into the realm of ridiculous, including an implied comparison of the construction of Interstate 94 through downtown and the destruction of a historic neighborhood to that of a one-block sidewalk expansion proposal. The sidewalk proposal was also rejected by the Historic Preservation Committee, confusingly so I might add. What'sWhy is the moot? Because the real culprit isn't parking or cafes, and it shouldn't be viewed under just those two lenses.

We have all of this space for an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 cars per day [MnDOT]. While it's not downtown's sleepiest road, it certainly doesn't have a lot of traffic compared to other areas that many would consider successful commercial, residential and retail streets. For example, this stretch of street has about 1,000 to 2,000 fewer cars than (smaller) Selby Avenue.