My ideas for how to spend any stimulus money that comes our way
Upgrade and relocate the city's sewer treatment plant. Get it out of that prime spot between the bridges and make that space part of the continuous stretch of parkland along the riverfront. The benefits would be environmental (a modernized sewer system, and one less in danger of being flooded in our ever-more-common "100-year" floods), aesthetic, and recreational.
Really want to get serious about downtown redevelopment? Pick half a block in the downtown core (Fifth to Eighth, Maine to Broadway), buy out every building owner, and flatten. Then build a three-story, free, covered parking garage. Or if not free, permit merchants to validate parking. Can't be farther west than Third, because lazy Quincyans will not walk uphill. The north side of Maine between Sixth and Seventh looks like a good place to me, or Hampshire between Fifth and Sixth. Maybe the west half of the block on Maine between Seventh and Eighth.
Make sure that every street in the city – every street – has a sidewalk along at least one side. Make it easier for people to walk in their neighborhoods. Make it safer for kids to ride their bikes. And the heck with this business of a sidewalk that goes partway down a block, then stops, then starts again three houses down.
Convert to solar-powered and/or LED streetlights.
Really want to get serious about downtown redevelopment? Pick half a block in the downtown core (Fifth to Eighth, Maine to Broadway), buy out every building owner, and flatten. Then build a three-story, free, covered parking garage. Or if not free, permit merchants to validate parking. Can't be farther west than Third, because lazy Quincyans will not walk uphill. The north side of Maine between Sixth and Seventh looks like a good place to me, or Hampshire between Fifth and Sixth. Maybe the west half of the block on Maine between Seventh and Eighth.
Make sure that every street in the city – every street – has a sidewalk along at least one side. Make it easier for people to walk in their neighborhoods. Make it safer for kids to ride their bikes. And the heck with this business of a sidewalk that goes partway down a block, then stops, then starts again three houses down.
Convert to solar-powered and/or LED streetlights.
posted by Allthenewsthatfits at 7:03 AM
15 Comments:
Those are all fine ideas, but they will create a whopping zero long term jobs and have no long term economic value.
Know you mean well, but the plant at the location metioned is the water treatment plant. Sewer plant is just east of the lock & dam.
Such limited ideas. With the connections that our mayor says he has with top level politicians, Quincy should be getting tens of millions, if not more than a billion dollars. Think on a grander scale please.
Thanks for the correction, anon 9:15. My mistake.
So they would create zero long term jobs. Why is that the measure by which we judge whether something is worthwhile?
Of course they have long term economic value--they improve quality of life and are part of the whole package that would help make selling Quincy to the next company that is looking for someplace to locate a plant that *would* have long term jobs.
You cant neglect any aspects of community improvement if you want to have real economic development--not even the things that you think are "not of any long term economic value" or "create zero long term jobs".
It's all inter-related.
a downtown parking structure, and a nice one, would be a very welcome addition...
our present mayer wants to blacktop some parking lots downtown
our present mayer wants to blacktop some parking lots downtown
please explain how flattening buildings and building a parking garage in downtown Quincy makes economic or common sense...
Here's how:
1. People complain about finding a parking place downtown, especially since some of the downtown workers park on the street (looks in the direction of the WCU Building). A garage would eliminate that concern.
2. People also complain about parking in inclement weather. This issue of course is a problem all over town, but a covered garage would provide a competitive advantage to downtown businesses.
3. Downtown in populated with too many rundown, vacant buildings that will never -- never -- be occupied by the kind of merchant who will attract an affluent clientele. If we want a downtown full of tattoo parlors and thrift shops, we are well on our way; but is that the kind of downtown we want? It's time to recognize this reality and improve the vacancy supply/demand ratio by reducing the supply of vacant buildings.
4. The presence of those decrepit vacant buildings harms the existing businesses that are trying to succeed. People start to assume that since the buildings around you are trashy and dangerous, your business must be similarly trashy. Terrific small businesses like Schuecking's, Illinois School Supply, Expressions by Christine, and Washington Perk are harmed by people's perceptions of downtown as a broken-window desert.
5. Special-event parking is always a challenge, and a garage would guarantee that people could find a close place to park for Washington Park and Maine Street events.
The parking problem is a perception problem, as is proven by numerous parking studies and counts undertaken over the last several years. It would make much more sense to require big-boxes to build parking garages in order to reduce the amount of farmland taken out of production and reducing the cities development and maintenance costs.
I agree that it is a perception problem rather than an actual lack of parking spaces. The problem is, when Mr. or Mrs. Smith gets in the car to go shopping, a perceptual problem influences his or her behavior just as much as a "real" problem. There is no pragmatic difference between a perceptual and a "real" problem.
"Perhaps the best way to estimate the cost of a new parking garage is to look at the number of spaces it contains. In 1996, the International Parking Institute estimated that new parking garages cost betweeen $4,500 and $15,000 per space (depending, of course, on the type of construction, special features, etc.). A reliable average is approximately $7,000 per space for multi-level garages. Surface facilities can be built for around $1,500 per space in most cases. (More than 60 percent of paid off-street parking is in surface lots with the remaining 40 percent in garages.)" http://www.parking.org/Value/FAQ/Default.aspx (AND from 1996...). I can think of about 7,000 better ways to spend that kind of money in Quincy...
OK, but the fact remains that the downtown area has been in decline for a long time, and in my opinion radical action is needed to try to reverse it.
I don't think the current civic formula of happy talk and some pretty round streetlights will do the trick. There are plenty of cities that tried the whole "pedestrian mall" thing and found that it didn't work without a large resident population of eager walkers (i.e., college students).
So I fear the only alternative is to make the downtown very, very friendly to motor vehicles. The city went through earlier this year removing parking spaces along Maine and the adjoining streets, making it harder, not easier, for people to park near a store. Just ask the people at Quincy Appliance how happy they were when their entire side of 8th Street got painted yellow. That sort of "improvement" will give us a nice clean downtown with lots of empty parking spaces, because the businesses will be closed up.
The city removed a grand total of six (6...SIX...06) parking spaces on Maine Street and (I think) 10 more on side streets as part of the work. 16 spaces out of a couple thousand available downtown.
I don't give a damn how people "perceive" it. They're being asshats and asshattery is not protected by the Constitution.
Right there is the problem with downtown: the people of Quincy. The STUPID people of Quincy, who not only accept sub-par politics but also wilfully neglect their greatest community resources.
What amazes me is these same people will park waaaaaay out at Wal-Mart, but bitch because they can't park right next to the store downtown.
How about we quit spreading the lies (and that's what they are, LIES) about downtown and start talking up the reality? Perception can be changed if we'll just try to speak the truth rather than "what everyone knows" (which is usually 100% wrong).
Too much crime? Pfffft. Try almost NONE. No parking? Try LOTS if you'll get off your fat ass and walk 100 feet. Nothing happening downtown? Get new glasses, idjit, the businesses and agencies downtown are trying MIGHTILY to attract you but you'd rather send your money to China and low-paid workers in Mexico (and East Broadway).
I WILL grant you empty buildings that are poorly cared for. Stupid out-of-town landlords (and at least one in-town) don't give a damn and frankly I think the property should be seized as soon as they begin to show signs of neglect.
But they aren't the root cause of the problem.
What frosts me is that when downtown really does dry up and blow away, these SAME people will piss and moan about how the "city didn't do enough" and "businesses didn't do enough" and when you call them on it they will say "oh no I hardly ever went downtown" followed by one of the Great Lies.
People of Quincy, downtown is in decline because of YOU. If it dies it will be because of YOU.
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