In Defense of City Parking Lots (or, Confessions of a Part of the Problem):
Maybe these open spaces are our public squares. Europeans park on a few of
their piazzas and places and plazas. We just park on lots and lots of ours.
Minneapolis parks don't include many formal, decoratively-paved urban
squares. But think of our surface lots as blacktop piazzas, and we double or
quadruple our park space overnight at no expense.
Many lots are strung with festive chains dangling little metal number signs.
One down my street is brick. Most are adorned with some sort of shrubs or
trees. When empty of cars, they offer space for hard-surface ball play or
running around. Plowed snowpiles provide more opportunities for fun.
Did the vision of Block E as a public square occur to anyone when it was
full of buildings? Or did its prolonged incarnation as surface lot inspire
the push for a park there?
These observations come the day after a nearly-disastrous and rare attempt
to drive within the city to see a movie. The babysitter got caught in U of M
sports traffic, and by the time we got there, the Lagoon's lot was full, as
was the Calhoun Square ramp (a fact we discovered after a full tour of its
facilities). We moved traffic cones and made madcap dashes down alleys for
on-street spaces, only to find meters peddling mere half-hours.
Heart set on a particular movie ("Gosford Park", about English car park
workers and the Land Rovered gentry they serve), we had no choice but to
take our custom upriver to Coon Rapids, proud home to hundreds of blacktop
piazzas.
Chris Steller
Nicollet Island-East Bank
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