I want to be clear that I am not addressing the merits of the Wilshaw deal, as I am not familiar with the details of it. As a general principle, I do not like corporate welfare and I fear that some of this is involved in the Wilshaw deal. As one who is considerably smarter than me once said, "If it can't fly without government assistance, it can't fly." While I don't adhere to that principle 100% of the time, it is a pretty good guide most of the time.
However, with respect to the parking issue, I side with those who say the project should proceed.
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| Rendering of the Wilshaw |
I do not believe that it is the responsibility of the developers of the Wilshaw to ensure adequate parking for the entirety of Main Street.
Parking scarcity evidences increased "demand" for the limited "supply" of Main Street amenities, including parking, that we have. Demand meets supply by fluctuating price. If the price of parking in the area goes up, that benefits incumbent property owners in the area. Perhaps at some point, someone decides to build a parking garage because it would be profitable.
If more people are going out on Main Street, then the price of going out goes up, as does the property value of the commercial property located on Main. This results in increased profits, not to mention increased tax revenues for the Town.
Increased tax revenues, without increasing tax rates, is a good thing. If homeowners' home values are going up, business' profits are going up, and tax revenues are going up without increasing rates, I fail to see the problem.
I know that some people who live near Main have lived there for a long time and have grown accustomed to parking on the street in front of their homes. However, while those homeowners own their homes and property, they do not own the street. If they desire dedicated parking for themselves, they can park on their own property. As pertains everyone else in Speedway, it can't be more than 2 miles from one end to the other. From the northwest corner of Meadowood, most people can easily ride a bicycle to Main Street. If anything, we should be talking about bike lanes/accessibility throughout the town, not dedicating more of our limited space to surface parking.
I believe it was Chris Hill ( owner of Dawson's ) who stated in an indystar article that the lack of parking was " a death sentence " to Dawson's . We go there to eat at least 4 times a month ... I'm in support of Dawson's ... a nice local " non chain " great place to eat, and will continue to eat there . However , I can understand his concern .
ReplyDeletehttp://www.indystar.com/story/news/2017/01/16/speedway-project-ignites-parking-fears/96384394/
ReplyDeleteThis is not about the Wilshaw developers; this is about our SRC and Town Council to allow corporations to make changes when we are dealing with a prime piece of real estate. There was no motel to begin with, there was no swimming pool to begin with, lastly part of their bid was to build a 500 car parking garage (their bid-not ours). Main Street has a history of parking problems and part of it was remedied but the surface lot and not that will be gone and the need for more parking has and will come. I am not worried about Speedway residents making it to Main St., but I do not know of many people who bicycle in from other towns. Have you even seen the other bids that were placed on this piece of property? You can.
ReplyDeleteWhen you look around at areas like Broad Ripple, Mass Ave or even Nashville IN that have parking challenges, I see very few people unwilling to frequent if the establishment has great atmosphere and food. I visit all of these areas and I never come away saying "man, that was great parking!" I understand the challenges that it presents to Speedway residents. Need to find out more info. I believe SRC is building and leasing back the parking garage. Who is actually cutting the project? To say that spots across two 4-lane roads and a roundabout is valid parking is a disservice to our community and you can bet that employees of Wilshaw will not park there either during the winter. At the end of the day, what is best for our town?
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