10.03.2006
How To Unfuck A Downtown
The proposal: take a parking lot and build on it a combo apartment building-retail space-parking garage complex. This will be the salvation of downtown Plattsburgh, NY.
Just like all the other projects that were going to revitalize downtown. Hey, let’s convert convenient two-way streets into inconvenient one-way streets. Hey, let’s widen the sidewalks and narrow main street, making it difficult to park. Hey, let’s replace our efficient, white streetlights with antique lampposts featuring antique garish lighting that floods the sky with an ugly, urine stain glare, a waste of energy. Hey, let’s try diagonal parking, even though it’s confusing to drivers.
On and on it goes. No master plan. Just tear this down here, build this over there. Let’s try this crazy scheme, no let’s do that one.
And what you end up with is a patchwork of failed half-ass projects.
All paid for by tax dollars. Citizens lose, but usually the pols stay ahead of the game, not one dime lost on their part.
Look around downtown Plattsburgh and you’ll see how innovation for its own sake has fucked up the area.
One solution is to put things back the way they were, at least those things that worked properly.
No, not diagonal parking. But narrow the sidewalks and widen the street so that traffic flow and parking isn’t such a pain in the ass. Wide streets worked for decades with no problems.
Return to the modern streetlights, the hooded type that casts pleasant white light downward where it’s needed, instead of wastefully staining the sky with a piss glow.
Make it easy to get around town. One-way streets are great for moving traffic through an area quickly. If you want people to stay a while, then have two-way streets. That way they can drive around the block, instead of going out of their way for three blocks because of a useless one-way street.
And whatever you do, DON’T FUCK UP THE PARKING. The biggest complaints about downtown are parking, parking, parking. Don’t build on a parking lot and eliminate the easy access it provides. One main reason why the malls beyond the city limits have been kicking downtown’s ass into a pulp is because they offer LOTS OF FREE, CONVENIENT PARKING.
Try to look at the overall picture: traffic flow, parking, easy access, etc. The answer is obvious: people want convenience.
That’s why they’ve been going elsewhere.
# posted by Stan Spire @ 2:59 AM 
