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City creating auto dependency

Instead of more parking garages, why not create a downtown people don't have to drive to?

By: Steve Snyder / Blog of the week: The Rise and Sprawl

Posted: 09/16/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

The 159-stall Bedford Parkade in the Exchange District. Building a parking structure does nothing but promote commuterism and creates a culture of exodus. (WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES) Photo Store

Winnipeg's East Exchange neighbourhood is being hailed as the city's next big thing. Developers, non-profit organizations and city councilors all tout its recent improvements and rapid growth, citing the likes of the Waterfront Drive condos and Streetside's new James Avenue re-development.

This is a great first step for centralization of population in this section of downtown, but much more is needed and the current plans don't address some major issues.

All evidence from city council indicates the government-owned surface parking lot at James Avenue and Amy Street -- behind the Warehouse Theatre -- will become the site of the new James Avenue Parkade. On March 23, 2011, city council approved the distribution of $23.6 million from the sale of the Winnipeg Square parkade, including $8.3 million to develop the streetscaping in the James Avenue/North Portage areas and $5 million for the city to become an equity partner in the James Avenue Parkade.

The Free Press article Change in the East Exchange quotes Bill Coady, GM for Sunstone Development: "The province has already agreed to make the property available for a parkade for the East Exchange area... (it) will include parking and office or retail on the bottom five floors," and an undisclosed amount of residential above.

These sorts of funding initiatives, and statements from both the province and developers, show a massive bias toward the automobile being citizens' transportation of choice. In their book, Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependency, Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy define automobile dependency as: "... when a city or area of a city assumes automobile use as the dominant imperative in its decisions on transportation, infrastructure and land use. Other modes thus become increasingly peripheral, marginal or non-existent until there are no real options for passenger travel other than automobile."

Council, the legislature, and developers need to think differently! Perhaps the reason why developers are so slow build in the Exchange District without more parking isn't because more people want to drive, but because more people HAVE to drive. Further to the quote from Bill Coady, the Free Press article states: "Several developers... are counting on the city to come through with a parking structure." This further shows the biases towards automobile transportation.

In an opinion piece published in the Free Press, A Downtown for transients doesn't work, Ross Dobson dwells on the idea that land use that promotes commuter and transient populations doesn't positively affect the neighbourhood. Although his piece focused on the new SHED district, the same can be said for the East Exchange. Building a parking structure does nothing but promote commuterism and creates a culture of exodus.

What if some of this public money -- $5 million plus -- went to incentives for the development of land uses that would keep people in the East Exchange? What if the James Avenue Parkade wasn't in the picture and instead the money went to entice developers to make the East Exchange a complete neighbourhood? Think of the impact a grocery store, pharmacy, small professional practices or firms, or a hardware store would have. The city can create incentives for things so much better than a parking garage.

Steve Snyder is an urban design and municipal affairs enthusiast who writes on Winnipeg issues. Follow him on Twitter @steveosnyder

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 16, 2012 A10

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