Isn't the real question: "Why put all those parked cars in
the same location?" The answer is: Because it continues a
pattern of planning in Minneapolis which defines common
districts, ie Nicollet Mall: The Shopping District,
Marquette Avenue: The Business District; The Warehouse Area:
The Entertainment District; Hennepin Avenue: The Theater
District. Now Minneapolis is going to put in another huge
sports venue in the Warehouse Area. That area will
eventually become the Sports & Entertainment District.
Why is this important? Because human beings love to order
things, unfortunately order of this type in city planning
can lead to chaos. Instead of approaching our city as a
complex organic structure where venues can exist in multiple
locations and there can be cross pollination, we continue to
push for these overly sanitized, clearly delineated
districts. Oh there are a few exceptions, but primarily
this one dimensional planning is what Minneapolis does. So
that's why there are all those cars in the same location at
one time. If we had scattered our ramps throughout the city
instead of lining them up like the Berlin Wall, we wouldn't
have such a problem. And if we had a more organic approach,
we'd be putting more housing directly into downtown in each
of these districts, which would in turn help create the
critical mass to sustain livability after the 9-5 working
hour.
Russell W. Peterson
St. Michael
Russell W. Peterson, RA, CID
Founder
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R U S S E L L P E T E R S O N D E S I G N
Architecture / Interior Design / Strategic Planning
"You can only fly if you stretch your wings."
Metro Minneapolis - Saint Michael
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13715 Forty-Seventh Street Northeast
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-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2001 5:17 PM
To: David Brauer
Cc: Mpls list
Subject: Re: [Mpls] Fun with parking ramps
The big ramps were funded in part with substantial federal
funds in a complex cost sharing formula. In addition, the
ramps were designed primarily as transit hubs, and were
designed for commuter traffic -- not the onslaught you'd see
at the end of a game. Ramps designed for that kind of
intermittent very high volume exit flow are excessively
expensive to build and an inefficient use of funds, yadda,
yadda, yadda. Hope this clears up part of the mystery. For
the rest call the city transportation dept -- they
operate the ramps.
"David Brauer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>@mnforum.org on
04/17/2001 03:17:13 PM
Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "Mpls list" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
cc:
Subject: [Mpls] Fun with parking ramps
Went to the Wolves game on Sunday and encountered an
interesting flyer as I
was pulling into the Fifth Street TAD ramp (the middle of
the big 394-linked
suckers on the western edge of downtown).
The flyers, handed out by parking attendants, basically ask
Timberwolves
fans to go elsewhere to park before the game. As I can tell
you from
experience, all those Wolves fans exiting from the 7th and
5th street ramps
causes a tremendous logjam. I talked to a friend at the
Wolves who said the
long wait to get out is one of two perennial complaints fans
have (the other
is the Target Center food service).
I told him, "man, you must have some pull with the city
because you have
people at city-owned ramps, which produce revenue for the
city parking fund,
handing out fliers telling people to go to privately owned
ramps with their
parking money. I know you're a major tenant in our
city-owned building, but
boy, we are putting out for you!"
A couple of points:
1. The fliers do direct people to several other ramps: the
4th street TAD
ramp (publicly owned), but also the LaSalle Court, Dayton's,
and Rapid Park
ramps, which are privately owned. We are doing Wolves fans
(our downtown's
customers) a favor, but we're also helping these private
owners make cash at
our city parking fund's expense. (The Hawthorne
Transportation Center and
Hennepin & 10th ramps are also listed, but I'm not sure who
owns those.)
I asked my Wolves source what the goal of the program was,
and he said to
get 1,000 to 2,000 parkers out of the 5th & 7th street
ramps. At $6 a car,
if half of those people go to privately owned ramps, the
city's parking fund
loses $125,000 to $250,000 a year.
2. If 19,000 Wolves fans cause such commotion, what the heck
is going to
happen if a 40,000-seat ballpark is built on the Rapid Park
site? Massive
parking availability is supposed to be a strength of the
location, but if
we're already admitting it doesn't work for large events...
And of course, the other big question: who designed ramps
that lots of
people couldn't get out of quickly? (By the way, on game
nights, you pay on
the way in, not out.) It's not like we didn't know Target
Center was going
to be there...
David Brauer
King Field - Ward 10
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