Using the cut out piece of card board test and a Google Map (above) the two NRA lots and Market Landing Park cover roughly the same geographic area as almost the entire downtown, with the boundaries being Merrimack, Green, Pleasant and Center.
Therefore, if we were to turn all of the NRA Lots into park or paved parking lot, our geographic downtown would actually be more than half park and parking lot if you include the Green Street lot.
More than half of the downtown would be parking lot and park.
More than half of the downtown would be parking lot and park.
I just don't see how that's historical.....or good for the downtown.
13 comments:
Excellent point, Tom. And what people have to remember is that nobody is proposing to develop all of the NRA property. In fact, the development of some of the "dirt parking lots" will increase the park area, while maintaining access to the waterfront, with views of the water.
Well, OK. You've prompted me to vent.
What's wrong with the downtown? As someone who first visited Newburyport almost 50 years ago and who has lived here for 40 years, the downtown still bears the scars of the bulldozer-crazed city fathers and federal urban renewal one-size-fits-all architects of the 1960's.
Exhibit 1: The Green St. parking lot. The bulldozers got going here
before the citizens stopped the nonsense. What was left was a huge
vacant lot that, for lack of money, was eventually paved over and then landscaped to put some lipstick on the pig. What should have been done? Re-create a downtown that draws people into and around the space and retains them there instead of a 2 or 3 linear block drive-through. A
parking garage with ground-floor retail catering to residents (not
designed by a parking garage designer) would be a possibility, but I probably won't live that long.
Exhibit 2: The NRA lots. Build. No, park! No, build! No, park! Result: dirt parking lot, without even the benefit of lipstick. You come into the downtown on Green St. and you have a sweeping vista of unattractive vacant lots both ahead of you and to your right.
What's missing from this pointless argument? That what's important on
the waterfront is public space and that what's important to the downtown is that it draws you into it and keeps you there. They need to be considered as a whole.
The park is fantastic in the summer. I wish I could sit and have a drink, a meal, or a sundae somewhere around it (besides Joe's and the Cow). I'd go for outdoor seating there long before I'd choose State St. On the other hand, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't call the waterfront especially hospitable public space in the winter. Does anybody actually go there then? By contrast, indoor spaces that opened
onto it could make that an attractive and useable space in the winter months, if only to watch the crazy people outside leaning against the wind. The proposal for an outdoor skating rink was one of the more hilarious proposals I've heard in recent years.
And for God's sake, close that gap between the Firehouse and that quaint auto parts shop and make a sensible and attractive streetscape out of that mess.
Bravo!
You represent us Toms well. Please come to the meeting on Saturday. We need more of this.
Well said, indeed!
Yes, please join the NRA on Saturday.
who will own the buildings if development is allowed? the NRA? Karp?
You're way ahead of us here. That would be included in a Request for Proposals which we'd craft at a later day.
Not sure how to address the Karp point. He hasn't been involved in this process at all.
Yeah, "multi-mode transportation center". Car and bus. What a good idea to store all the cars for people commuting into Boston downtown for the whole day. And not, for example, at the train station, where you might also have an actual "multi-mode". It's left as an exercise for the reader how the buses are going to get in and out of Titcomb St., but I suppose you could put that outdoor skating rink on the top.
Comedy Central ought to hang out here for year or two.
As much as I hate to agree with Ari, he's right; where are the cars going to go? You need to do a utilization study of the parking on the NRA lots to see just how many parking spaces we'll lose.
- Carrot
Way ahead of you Mr. C. Already being done.
Tom, good work. BTW, my opinion is that mixed-use (some commercial, some park) is the best use of the land, and if you guys are clever you'll work out a way to lease the commercial portion with the funds going into a trust for maintenance and improvement. I'm sure you already thought of that, though.
Ari, I don't care about the total number of parking spaces, I care about what percentage are being used and how frequently. Slight difference. Exclude the usage during Yankee Homecoming week as that's a statistical outlier. My hunch is that we won't have to find 370 replacement spaces.
In an ideal world I'd replace the Green Street parking lot with a parking garage, greatly increasing the capacity but confining it to one (already dedicated and centrally located) spot and be done with it.
- Carrot
Thanks Carrot. Needed that this morning.
are members of the NRA paid?
Nope. Nada. All volunteer.
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