Alex Garvin, the Yale University urban planning professor, put a few tips for kickstarting Wichita’s downtown on the table Wednesday night at the Wichita Downtown Development Corporation’s annual lecture.
Tucked neatly among those tips was a message for the the huddled masses yearning to park in a lovely $20,000-per-space concrete parking garage next door to the Intrust Bank Arena: Forget it.
Garvin’s only been in Wichita for a couple of days, so he can be excused for missing the city’s pathological aversion to – gasp – walking.
But he’s been involved in reviving downtowns for decades, and his advice to strategically spread out downtown’s attractions to induce patrons to walk among them for pre- and post-event food, drinks and fun should be taken very seriously.
He talked frequently Wednesday night about the economic dangers of allowing patrons to “get in their cars and go home.” Which is precisely what you do in Wichita by allowing the exercise-averse to park within a few feet of Intrust’s front door. Do that, and you all but assure that downtown won’t develop around the arena.
Call Garvin’s advice what you will. I call it an unqualified endorsement for the initial plans put in place by the Sedgwick County Commission and the Wichita City Council.
4 Comments
It seems that the best criticism of the arena that objectors have been able to come up with is that attendees can’t park closer than they do to the coliseum. We need to walk more. I walk seven or eight blocks to observe our parades now.
Interesting to hear one of the nation’s most decorated urban planners opine that parking nearby actually could kill downtown redevelopment before it starts.
Let the name-calling begin …
The key becomes making it a pleasant walk. We haven’t seen that plan yet. Also people need to be able to find the parking easily instead of randomly driving around searching for parking.
Of course, had the County been honest in the first place and not claimed that aprking would be a aprt of the package it might have helped.
I am from other cities where we walked a LOT more than around here. However, we also had transit and other ‘walker-friendly’ amenities.
Another comment about walking: In Chicago, New York, Boston etc we walked ROUTINELY – to the office, to lunch, etc. Every day. So, to an event it is no different than normal. Also, we tended to be more comfortable on our streets than people in Wichita seem to be.