There's a little density nugget tucked into the story about Brookline considering higher meter rates during Red Sox games (discussed here).
The owner of the Beacon Street Tavern estimates that 50% of his customers drive to the restaurant. Half of his customers don't get into a polluting car, don't add to local traffic, and don't need to have valuable real estate turned into an impermeable surface to provide temporary housing for cars.
Density helps business.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Walk to the Tavern
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2 comments:
I'm not that familiar with Beacon Street Tavern, but given the location, that's a pretty bad comparison. It's in the middle of a densely populated area, and easy walking distance to a college area, sports park, and a medical center. You're trying to compare his business to something that would be placed at the end of the green line. And still, his business is 50% from folks who drive. I'm not a great fan of parking lots, but why not let the folks who live around there decide. They don't need someone from Newton Center telling them what they should do and providing some fairly illogical data points and statistics. You have an opinion, that's fine. You're not an elected official, you're just one resident of Newton, who doesn't even live there. Don't make it sound as if you're arguing the points on their behalf. And really, at least make your comparisons valid.
Sean, Anonymous seems to have a point. I thought you were saying that the tavern owner would do okay in a dense area without parking. But the whole point of the article you referenced was to say that the business owners are doing terrible without enough parking because on game day, the red sox fans take all their customer's spots. They are clearly losing business due to lack of parking even in an urban area. Hmmm, sounds like their businesses might be helped by a park and ride too. Newton certainly doesn't have to care about them, but just saying "density helps business" isn't telling a substantial and KEY part of the story. If the kind of density around that area of Beacon St. isn't bringing enough business, how the heck is a business at Riverside going to survive without parking for patrons? I suppose the rent would be less. But there certainly doesn't seem to be a compelling argument for businesses to believe they don't need additional parking. And it's not going to be doing the residents any good if the businesses are continually failing, and folks are left with a bunch of empty store fronts. Or another town center with just banks, nail salons and dry cleaners which require shorter term parking. So, what are you saying?
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