Since my first week on the job here in Puyallup, the most common topic of conversation as I have met with building and business owners has been “parking.” That is not new. It has been that way in every business district in which I have worked. I would imagine it is the same for every Main Street program manager in Washington state, and may be so for most of all the Main Street managers in the U.S. It is not a new topic. But, just because parking is a problem every where does not mean that the feelings, attitudes and observations of Puyallup’s business owner have no value. Every business district has its own mix of resources, demands and challenges.
The comments and complaints passed on to me by the good people of downtown Puyallup follow three dominant themes:
1. My customers have no place to park near my store!
2. I and/or my staff have no place to park all day long. Every three hours I must shoo out the customers, lock up the store for 10 to 15 minutes to go move my car to another location.
3. Sound Transit riders are getting a free ride.
Everyone brings their own point-of-view to the situation, and every point-of-view is valid. Though traffic counts, demand studies and resource inventories result in stacks of statistics and colorful maps, they do little to soothe the nerves of the business owner frustrated on a daily basis.
In an attempt to get a grip on the problem, I copied an aerial photograph of the Central Business District from Google Earth and, using graphic software, shaded all off-street areas dedicated to parking. One thing becomes obvious: Within the core commercial area of Puyallup, the single dominant process carried out every workday is the storage of vehicles. Unfortunately, in Puyallup’s core commercial area, that single dominant process results in no money changing hands. That goes against the purpose of a commercial district.
Remedies run along two strategies: 1) Find a way to charge for parking, or 2) Find a way to get people downtown without their cars. Though there is a perception that Puyallup has a parking shortage, there is not such a demand that people will pay much for it. Puyallup is a long way from making a commercial parking structure viable. Short term recommendations will focus on a shuffling of space, redistribution of access, cooperation, and creative search for unused resources.
Again, Puyallup is not alone. Every hamlet along the Sounder tracks from Tacoma to Seattle shares the condition.
The long term remedy will demand creativity, commitment, and coordinated investment from all levels of government. It will not be quick, and it will not be cheap.
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