Parking Problems for a Few

I have heard from various people lately about the "parking problem" on Main Street. Suffice it to say, I disagree with whatever activism is currently demanding the Town address parking prior to proceeding with further development. I have taken note of much of the discussion, and this is an issue that is not going away anytime soon.

Rather than allow the most vocal opponents of this development, including the Speedway Town Press, the only voice in the room, I have decided to share my thoughts on these objections and protestations, generally, and add my $0.02 to the discussion. My views on the redevelopment are generally known as well, and more will follow.

In no particular order, some thoughts:

1. If you live near Main Street and park on the street, I'm sorry to break it to you but the streets do not belong to you. They belong to the public. They are public property. They were paved with public dollars. Your property belongs to you. If you don't have sufficient parking on your property, then that is your problem. The streets belong to you in the same way they belong to every other citizen. No more. No less. The logical conclusion of this premise is that you do not have an a priori right to dictate what another property owner does with his/her property. Period.

2. Owners of businesses are responsible for their own parking, not that of others. I note that some on the Town Council have made statements to the effect that Speedway doesn't want to be the next Broad Ripple or Fountain Square. Out of context, I am not sure what was meant. However, some have taken that to mean that elected officials are looking to slow down, stop, impede, or otherwise interfere with private development to ensure that a minority of the citizenry feels like there is enough parking. (Never mind the difficulty of defining what enough parking is and whose opinion on that should prevail; or focusing on whether there is actually enough parking as opposed to whether people feel like there's enough). If that is the case, it represents a deficit of leadership in this Town. Those who would impede development for the sake of parking have little, if any, respect for property rights or vision for the future. Someone please explain to me why it is that the Wilshaw owners are expected to provide parking for Dawson's (to name but one example) customers and not vice versa. Why? Why is the Town of Speedway expected to pay for parking for people? If you insist on driving somewhere, parking is every bit the expense that you have naturally incurred as gasoline is. Don't expect me to pay for your gasoline, and don't expect me to pay for your parking. Likewise, I don't expect to pay for parking for business' patrons any more than I expect to pay for restrooms for business' patrons.

3. If the elderly or disabled can't go to a certain restaurant on Main St. because they can't park out front, that's unfortunate. I'm sure they can find somewhere to go in their car. That's the thing about cars . . . they can be driven for miles at a time. It's unfortunate they had to drive a few more minutes. It's unfortunate that Main St. did not get that business. However, until that represents a negative macro-effect, it is not the Town's problem. If businesses can't stay open because people have nowhere to park and we are dealing with a blighted area, then it's a problem for the Town to address. Until then, it is an inconvenience for some; not a public problem.

4. Priorities have a funny way of revealing themselves. Economists call this one's "stated preference" vs. one's "revealed preference." I might claim that I prefer salad for lunch, but when I continually get cheeseburgers and wings for lunch, my true preference is revealed. The same thing exists as to our Town. The way I see it, the town could put money into parking, or it could put money into a variety of other things. To name a few, it could put that money into schools, hire a few more police officers, put a sidewalk along Crawfordsville Road from the roundabout to Lynhurst, or it could put that money into a splash pad at Leonard or (preferably) Meadowood Park. To lead is to choose. If our leaders choose to put public money into parking (or require private money to be spent on it . . . there's not a whole lot of difference), then they have chosen the priorities of the old, disabled, and let's admit it, lazy, over the priorities of young families and children. This is a choice. Any member of our town council who chooses this should own that choice and be prepared to defend it.

5. Consider what an abundance of parking represents about the values of a particular place and how that makes you feel about being there. I'm thinking of the Speedway Super Center or whatever that God-awful place that houses Kroger is called. Tons of parking! Come on down! Of course, you wind up walking as far as you would if you park a block away on Main St., not to mention the horrific traffic in the  "thru-ways" in that huge lot. Now conjure some examples of places where parking is rare: Times Square, Monument Circle, Wrigleyville, Broad Ripple Ave., the French Quarter. Now, let's think of places where parking is cheap and abundant: any mall, an airport, a warehouse, a factory, outside an amusement park or most sporting venues. Personally, I'd rather that Speedway err, if at all, towards the first group of places than the second. This is my home. I want it to feel like a destination. I would like it to feel welcoming to people rather than like a place largely designed for parking automobiles. Not a place that you quickly get through in order to get to wherever else you're going.

6. There is an abundance of parking in and near the track, both to the west and to the south. There is a huge lot just east of Main St. and the gas station. All it takes is a decent footpath or valet service (something that the free market is perfectly capable of providing) and VOILA! Your parking problems are solved for the time being. Perhaps someday the area develops so much that this temporary fix no longer suffices. GOOD! That means that we have convinced the world that Speedway, IN, is the place where they too should invest their money, their time, their efforts, their ingenuity, their blood, sweat and tears, and their lives.

7. To those who say that Main St. will lose business due to a lack of parking, that sounds like the old Yogi Berra quip: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." If this becomes a problem, as I noted in point #2 above, to the degree that parking becomes a genuine problem for business, I believe that the free market can address this. As I indicated, it is not as though parking nearby is difficult to find. Guess how the Columbia Club, Prime 47, the Conrad, Ruth's Chris, St. Elmo, etc., handle this? Valet service. If parking becomes a problem, $5 to have someone park it doesn't seem too bad, particularly if you're somewhere that makes you happy to be there (see point #4 above).

I could go on, as I have more thoughts to share on this notion. I recognize that my opinions will likely not be popular with the Speedway Town Press or the current group that is "working" on "solving" this "problem." For those of you who welcome development, please speak up and let our Town Council know that the loudest voices (those opposing development) are not the only voices.