San Francisco has 23,000 metered parking spaces and sets prices using complex “demand-responsive rate adjustments.” Around SF City Hall, for example, hourly rates vary by time of day and block by block – up to $5.25 midweek and as low as $.25 on weekends. In San Diego, despite the growing population and a tightening supply, many locals still expect free parking – especially in beach communities. San Diego currently has about 5,700 metered spaces mostly charging a top rate of $1.25 per hour. Nearly all the metered spaces are in Uptown and Downtown where parking is a hot topic at neighborhood meetings. [Read more…] about Parking Management: San Diego Style (Part Two)
Despite community plan policies disfavoring surface parking and encouraging the retention of fine grain development, the adaptive reuse of existing structures, and encouraging walking, biking, and public transit use, Civic San Diego staff is recommending the approval of the expansion of a surface parking lot on the block bounded by F St. and 7th and 8th Ave. Additionally, they are making this recommendation despite the fact that it will require the demolition of several viable and recently occupied commercial buildings. The sole reason offered for recommending approval of demolition for a surface parking is that there is a demand for parking – as if such parking demand was unknown when the Downtown Community Plan was adopted. This recommendation essentially casts aside the community plan goals while at the same time reciting them in the report making the recommendation.
[Read more…] about Demo for Parking – They’re at it Again in Downtown San Diego!
An invitation was emailed last week for a ground breaking ceremony to be held on Wednesday Oct. 8, at 10:00 AM for a new Pendry Hotel to replace the parking lot of 5th & J. The invitation was ground breaking in more than one way. This parking lot was the site of one of the most egregious abuses of eminent domain under the California Community Redevelopment Act, and became one of the poster-children of the property rights – anti-eminent domain movement. Many believe it also played a role in Governor Brown’s repeal of the redevelopment law. [Read more…] about Parking lot no more at Fifth & J in the Gaslamp Quarter?
San Diego, 741 F Street, demolition continues on this historic warehouse to make room for surface parking. [Read more…] about Demolition of Historic Building for Parking Lot Continues
An ugly side of redevelopment (RIP), a side rarely mentioned in all the self-laudatory hype, is the demolition. Too often its of historic structures, or structures that create the street-level fabric necessary for a walkable city. Too often its not even for a new structure but for surface parking, [Read more…] about San Diego’s Parking Lot Blight; Requiem for Redevelopment
San Diego – “They took all the trees
San Diego – This week, Pauly de Bartolo and Ivan Rimanic, founding principals of de Bartolo + Rimanic Design Studio, sit down to re-imagine Paradise.
A precious gift of our open society is the free exchange of ideas. With the help of designers, ideas become imagery. With political will and financial impetus, imagery becomes reality. [Read more…] about Part II – The invisible city: re-imagining Paradise
As humans we are always quick to rationalize or dismiss things that we no longer value. After all, the world doesn’t rotate the sun, it centers on us. We really can’t see the world through other eyes, so we make our judgments based on the most respected and qualified person we know, and it is us. [Read more…] about “Nobody Goes There Anymore, Its’ Too Crowded” – Yogi Berra
