Parking In Action
I feel pretty comfortable making the assumption that if you ask just about anyone about downtown Cedar Rapids, regardless of whether their last trip to our city’s core neighborhood was last weekend or last decade, the conversation will ultimately land on parking. When it comes to parking, everyone is confident that they have the one solution that will create complete downtown “parking nirvana.” I often hear that if parking was completely free or if there was a parking ramp on every corner, everyone’s problems would be solved. End of story. The thing that I found so surprising when I began to dig a little deeper into the issue of downtown parking, was that everyone’s parking needs are completely unique and parking, for most people, is an incredibly personal issue.
Parking is the first and last thing that someone has to think about when they go downtown – from how much it is going, to cost to what methods of payment are accepted, to the customer service one does (or does not) receive when attempting to pay a parking citation. When it comes to downtowns, parking seems to be the great equalizer and revitalization of Cedar Rapids’ downtown parking system has been a topic of conversation for as long as anyone can remember.
In August 2009, the Downtown District supported the City of Cedar Rapids’ decision to bring in Republic Parking Systems (now known as Cedar Rapids Parking) to manage the daily operations of the parking system. Republic began work in Cedar Rapids in mid-September 2009 with a big task ahead of them; nearly every aspect of the parking system needed some sort of analysis, upgrade and/or repair. Many of the issues were not new; parking system maintenance and technological upgrades had been delayed for years, with parking revenues going to fund other community needs. Post-flood, however, the conversation about parking had begun to shift and downtown stakeholders were talking more and more about how something like parking could support the economic development and revitalization goals of downtown Cedar Rapids. Construction of a new Federal Courthouse, proposed expansion and upgrade of the US Cellular Center, site selection for the new public library and impending demolition of the flood damaged First Street parking ramp – all of these exciting projects promised to bring lots of new jobs and visitors to downtown Cedar Rapids. These projects also promised to bring a lot of something else to downtown Cedar Rapids: people looking for a place to park.
Was there enough parking in downtown to support all the new development and more importantly, was the available parking capacity in the right place? Would parking rates return to full price on July 1, 2010? How many parking spots did a public library actually need? How far were parkers willing to walk from their destination? All of these big picture questions led the Downtown District to propose a collaborative project between the City of Cedar Rapids and Republic Parking Systems to create a strategic parking action plan for downtown Cedar Rapids. Countless hours of community work had already gone into creating the JLG Downtown Vision (2007) and Neighborhood Reinvestment Action Plans (2009), so the Downtown District enlisted nationally renowned parking expert and International Downtown Association board member, Dennis Burns of Carl Walker, Inc., to help funnel some of those plan’s “big picture” concepts into specific action items. The work with Dennis Burns the team from Carl Walker, Inc. began in December 2009 and will conclude in mid-April 2010 with a presentation to City Council of some (low or no cost) recommendations to be implemented almost immediately. The project team is taking a holistic approach to their creation of recommendations and timelines for the strategic parking action plan because just like many other kinds of business, parking systems cannot be successful if their various departments (i.e. enforcement, finance, facilities maintenance, IT) are working in isolated silos. Done well, parking can be a powerful economic development tool that provides a funding source for reinvestment in other downtown amenities, like public art and streetscape beautification.
Stay tuned to www.downtowncr.org for information on what visible progress you can expect to see downtown in 2010. The final plan will be presented to City Council in mid-April 2010 with the intention for some (low or no cost) recommendations to be implemented almost immediately. Our parking system has no where to go but up and if true “parking nirvana” is something that we ever want to achieve in Cedar Rapids, there is no better place to start than with a bold action plan, a roadmap to implement that plan and a bit of common sense.
Vanessa Solesbee is Operations Director the Cedar Rapids Downtown District and project manager for the parking strategic action plan.