Do You Hate The Parking Downtown?
Visiting with friends about eating and shopping downtown, the subject of parking comes up quickly as their main objections to coming downtown to engage in commerce. There isn’t enough parking. The parking is always full. And truthfully, I know exactly what they mean. Leaving the office multiple times a day to check on job sites, pick up materials, meet with property owners and running the general errands that come with owning your own business dictates that I give up my prime parking spot that I snagged first thing in the morning multiple times a day. More than once after coming back to the office, I have discovered not only my space taken, but all the spaces in the block that our building sits on have been taken. After circling the block hoping someone else will pull out and leave, I come to the realization that I will just have to park a block over. Oh the agony! The walk is sooo far.
But really, is it? We, as humans, are so funny about our ideas of comfort, and it is all relative to the space we are in at the time. Recently we attended an informational meeting hosted by our local downtown business association discussing best practices they had gathered on the heels of the Texas Downtowns Conference. Parking is ALWAYS on the agenda (apparently our downtown is not the only one with this issue). But this year, they presented it in a way that resinated with me and made me laugh at myself and my expectations. The parking presentation was centered around the idea that if you lay out the footprint of the square footage of Sams’ building and parking lot footprint over the square footage of downtown, it covers nearly 10 blocks of our downtown. If you park somewhere toward the back of the Sam’s lot (because there are never any spots up close) and walk to the back of Sam’s and back out to your car, you could have walked around the entire downtown, and visited multiple shops at the same time. The footprint of Walmart, Lowes, and Home Depot are all like this.
The massive footprint of box retailers makes the walk into the store seem not so bad. That’s weird. The mind is a powerful tool. Then you walk around in those cavernous warehouses looking for a giant jar of pickles that you can’t find, and you end up crisscrossing back and forth several times before finding someone who can take you to them. Oh, they were all the way at the back of the store? Then, after walking all the way back to your car and slipping into the front seat, you feel relieved to be sitting down because for some reason your feet are sore and your knees are achy. You think to yourself, “Im glad this giant jar of pickles is so big because I don’t want to have to do that again anytime soon.”
But when you come downtown, everything is so cozy and close together, but you can’t find a parking spot in front of your favorite Kolache shop and have to contend with the idea of walking from across the street, or heaven forbid around the corner, its just too much! Too far!
You see, the perspective is different. Everything is smaller, so your mind feels like you should be closer. Even though you had to park one block over from where you want to be, you still only end up walking like 100 feet, 200 feet tops. But, the walk is pleasant and you get to pass multiple different shops that you hadn’t thought about in a while. There is landscaping and architectural design. The whole experience is a pleasant and enjoyable one.
Which store do you normally get to park right in front of? Right up front by the entrance door? Walmart? Nope. All their front row parking, as most big box stores are, is reserved for handicap parking spots. And even those spots are 50-60 feet from the door. Usually, their lots are pretty full as well, no matter what time of day you go. You are going to have to park anywhere from 100-200 feet from the door. And then you have to make your way past all the baskets, all the registers and walk past aisle after aisle looking for the items you came to get. And customer service, forget about that. That’s a whole other topic…I digress.
Several days ago I needed to run to Home Depot while I was in College Station. Just to get into the parking lot off of University, I sat through a red light THREE TIMES! Once I finally made it onto their campus, I then circled the parking lot in pursuit of the right parking spot. There is concrete and asphalt everywhere and no where to park. It was right about then that the whole idea of this downtown parking problem hit me. It is not a parking problem at all. Its a parking PERCEPTION problem.
In reality, you can park on one end of downtown and walk all the way to the other and back and it isn’t as far as you tell yourself it is. And the city has done such a wonderful job with the aesthetics and landscaping that it really is a pleasant walk. And heck, there is a whole group of people that meet at the mall for the sole purpose of walking all the way around it for exercise. You can do that in downtown and visit with people you pass and enjoy the experience all at the same time! As a matter of fact, my mom and I have started doing this very thing for several weeks now. It is our own walking club through downtown. Feel free to join us in the mornings on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays about 8:15!
If you are truly concerned about finding a parking spot, we do have a 5 story parking garage in downtown, in case you weren’t aware of that. It is right next to the court house and is only two short blocks off of Main Street and to my knowledge has never been full! So the next time you are looking for a spot to eat or shop, take a chance on Downtown. Park in the first spot you pass, get out and embrace what you discover as you stroll through the quaint streets, interact with the shop owners and notice the beauty you would have otherwise missed. For you fit bit enthusiasts, track your steps they next time you are at a box box retailer or strip center and downtown and tell us in the comments below what you discovered!