Would You Miss DC’s Parking Garages?

Photo courtesy of
‘wasteland’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

WaPo reported yesterday on how the parking lot under the Columbia Heights Target is losing $100,000 a month (that’s already $2 million dollars since its construction) due to lack of use.

At $1 an hour rates, you would think the garage could quickly fill for any number of reasons in a densely populated metropolitan region. But on any given day, the garage is at 25% – 47% capacity.

And what’s worse, the $40 million dollar parking lot was required by the city and funded by taxpayer dollars.

While perhaps District officials couldn’t have foreseen the disinterest in parking in Columbia Heights, hindsight is 20/20. District officials are working to rewrite the regulations that require developers to build a minimum number of parking spaces for new construction in areas near Metro stations.

What do you think about DC’s growing lack of demand for parking spaces? If there were none, would you miss them?

Cathy was fortunate to spend a year in Paris – traveling to all surrounding countries and touring all that is worthy. Upon realizing that there is no place like home (she does hail from Kansas City – but did not click her heels to get back – thank you, Air France), she returned to America where she set out to explore every last inch of our massive country. From her base in the nation’s capital, she has worked in marketing and event planning for the past 4 years. Mail any and all DC related tips to Cathy (at) WeLoveDC (dot) com.

2 thoughts on “Would You Miss DC’s Parking Garages?”

  1. I don’t have a car, so I wouldn’t mind. I think if D.C. wants to view itself as a true international city, it needs to stop developing itself like an old fashion American suburb. That age is over.

  2. The bit about the parking garage at “the Highland” (by which they mean Highland Park) is amusing. We just moved into the sister property Park Place (same developer, same architect, similarly oversized garage) and were initially quoted $200/mo for a parking space. I laughed. I think *some* garage space is necessary, but the garages in these new buildings have much more capacity than demand.

    But if Chris Donatelli wants to put that bowling alley into the Park Place garage instead, he’ll get no complaint from this tenant.