With the news of a horific beating
of a senior on Max , we need to
address security in public places
before we design anything inherantly
hard to patrol like this.
It would make great homeless shelter though...

Here is a link to the full issue. Bragdon has an interesting article about infrastructure funding.

http://www.pdx.edu/media/r/e/RE_2007REQuarterly3q.pdf

The chart on page 8 (page number: 25) is giving me trouble. How do you park 1900 cars at 1pm in a 1300 car garage, (okay, you use a valet, but I don't think they do that,) and how do you park a negative amount of cars at 4am, and how come every day always started with 200 cars when they don't always end with 200... (Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but...)

The MAX beating was indeed horrific, and local police should respond appropriately, but the hysteria this has created on this blog and elsewhere is unfounded. Violent crime is perpetrated against car drivers every day, and nobody is expressing outrage or regretting that we allow cars in the city.

If the beating had happened in a parking lot, would some of you want to blame the parking lot? Of course not, that would be illogical.

MAX was not the cause, it's just the scene of the crime.

How can you be against underground parking?

"How can you be against underground parking?"

Well, at $50k/space to build them, I think instead of validating parking, stores could save a lot of money by validating flexcar hours instead. I mean, flexcar has some nice cars, but most of them are under $25k... Or how about giving away bus passes instead of validating parking? Go to the store on the bus, show them your validated ticket/transfer, they give you a new one... But no, I'm totally in favor of underground spaces compared to surface parking lots, or even above ground parking garages. My problem is that there are just better [read: cheaper] ways to move people around.

I thought there was a planned cap on the # of parking spaces downtown? I remember a figure of 22,000.

Is that out the window? Just curious... perhaps what we need to do is build some gigantic 90+ towers of those automatic parking garage systems on the eastside, near the MAX or a direct bus line. Put a couple hundred thousand cars in some centralized parking garages, cause downtown seems like such a waste of space and real estate to build more parking in.

"Nobody is expressing outrage or regretting that we allow cars in the city."

Hmm... I definitely regret allowing cars to run amok through so much our city! Outrage is not too strong a word.

I think the point some people will make (including myself to some degree) is even if it's "out of sight" and used for 'aggregate mixed-use demands,' that's parking that still exists.

The bigger issue should be looking into what would get people to not make those trips in cars in the first place. The exception being if everyone is carpooling to the location, thereby keeping anywhere from 1-3 other cars off the road.

Or how about giving away bus passes instead of validating parking? Go to the store on the bus, show them your validated ticket/transfer, they give you a new one

Macy's does it. At least they did during their Grand Opening. Saturday Market does it too.

http://www.portlandsaturdaymarket.com/Main%20Pages/About%20Us/Customer%20Services.htm

So does Nordstroms.

Getting away from downtown for a moment, another store which offers transit discounts and has its own controversies relating to development and parking is Ikea. They offer a discount on their standard delivery fees to people who present a transit pass or valid fare.

- Bob R.

What's the big deal with IKEA anyway?

Why should I go there?

What's the big deal with IKEA anyway?

It's the meatballs.

But I don't want to make this into a discussion about Ikea ... I was just pointing out that they do offer delivery discounts to transit users.

- Bob R.