Bicycle!

You can be anywhere downtown in 10 minutes on a bike.

Robin.

Quote:

Light rail, or maybe one the 1/2 full parking decks in the area? If you add a bunch of surface parking downtown looks like a strip mall and no one is driving any distance to go to a strip mall in JC, they'll just go to the strip mall around the corner.

People like to walk around and shop. Even malls are designed for people to walk from store to store. If you spread out lots and make it easy for a person to drive from spot to spot that is just what they do, drive in pick up 1 thing and leave. That isn't going to help anyone in the long run. Making a nice street scape that people want to browse around for a while will.

How about making Newark from Jersey east a walking/biking street?

Quote: Yes it is... <-- Newark ave business owner. Mark.

So the above writers believe Downtown should be a walking community. What about the older residents who was born here but now have arthritis or heart disease and get around using a car? Or families with children? Downtown did have parking spaces before the garages and vacant land became condo buildings.

Quote:Why are you moving Yvonne, after all these years? We will miss your passion and ?thorn in the side? dedication to making things better in Jersey City.

Quote: Business owners usually do happen to be the largest proponents of giving over public spaces to automobiles and continue to be one of the greatest obstacles to building pedestrian friendly and pro-pedestrian environments. One of the more recent and high profile examples of this has been the conversion of Broadway in Manhattan from a multilane avenue to a mostly pedestrian mall. "Foot traffic grew by 11 percent in Times Square and by 6 percent in Herald Square, and a survey of local businesses found that more than two-thirds of the area?s retailers wanted the project to become permanent." NY Times Certainly I will agree that Newark Avenue is not Time Square. But this conflict between building parking lots versus increasing urban infill has been going on across the country for the better part of the last three decades. In most cases when living communities are given a priority over automobiles, property values rise, retail traffic increases, and neighborhoods are revitalized. Does less parking make it more difficult for someone to take home a grand piano in the back of their Suburban? Yes, probably. And thats probably true of large item purchases like mattresses and dining room sets too. But even if there were more surface parking lots in the downtown, that's not going to make any easier loading a grand piano (or a mattress or a dining room set) into the back of a suburban. Better management of metered parking might-- increasing the cost of meters to encourage drivers planning on longer stays to park in garages and thus freeing up parking for short stays like say picking up dinner at Its Greek To Me. Ultimately for business owners its not about the parking but the customers. One of the previous posts mentioned how difficult it was to get downtown from other parts of the city. I would say the problem then isn't the lack of parking downtown, but the lack of accessibility to the downtown; if the city is serious about improving Newark Avenue retail then instead of discussing obliterating the commercial district with more dead zones of parking lots, perhaps its time to discuss increasing transit options to the corridor. The bottom line is parking lots are not beneficial to a vital urban community. At this point I'll refer to my post on the Why the Waterfront is Dead Thread. Quote: Yes, and back then vacant brownstones now worth $1,000,000 were being auctioned for $7,500 and the city was a burned out shell.

New York City caters to tourists with the pedestrian friendly streets. Has anyone identified the people downtown JC wants to bring in with the increased parking?

Just because you own a business does not mean you have a special insight into what will bring more business. As pointed out above businesses always fight for more parking and they are almost universally proven wrong when infill of parking brings more business.

It isn't even really a question, infill increases property values and business opportunities. It. Has been Studied to death. There is a reason property values and business rents are higher in downtowns.

If the proposal was to flatten some buildings to create surface parking, I'd get the outrage. But it sounds like what's on the table is to open up an already existing parking lot for use as a municipal lot, in an area adjacent to lots of commercial establishments. While the real estate market remains soft, it's not a bad idea, and the market will dictate if/when the property will make more sense as something else. In the interim, I'll take the word of an actual Newark Avenue business owner over the armchair urban planning intelligentsia.

Chill out, people. And save the heavy-handed Times Square comparisons. Jersey City will never be Manhattan. No matter what your realtor told you.

Statement by Mike Francisco President, Harsimus Cove Association, Regarding the Proposed Sale of 8 Erie Street, Jersey City, NJ

May 6, 2011 ? ?Recent coverage of the proposed sale of 8 Erie Street, better known as Jersey City Police Headquarters, has focused on the construction of a parking structure, yet no such land use has officially been proposed. Rather, the issue of immediate concern is the apparent haste that the City is showing in selling the property. It strikes us as odd that the City would be satisfied with selling 8 Erie and an adjacent parking lot?prime real estate in historic Downtown Jersey City? for a pauper?s sum of $4 million. Anybody who has recently looked at the price of a single-family row house knows that the stated sale price of 8 Erie and the adjoining parking lot is alarmingly low.

?Most troubling about this situation is that the proposed sale of this landmark building in the heart of the Harsimus Cove Historic District has not been opened up to the public. The residents and business owners in Harsimus Cove and Downtown Jersey City should have a say in what ultimately comes of this property. For example, the Jersey City Board of Education?s Department of Early Childhood Education has for years looked for available space Downtown. And perhaps local businesses could make a strong argument for the construction of a parking garage on the existing lot. We will not have the opportunity to find out until the City engages in a fair, transparent and public vetting of all redevelopment proposals.

?The Harsimus Cove Association wants to guarantee the highest and best use of 8 Erie Street for all of our residents. As bad as the City is in need of money, the purchase price of $4 million is hardly adequate or ?fair market value.? We must begin to think long-term and not throw away the opportunity to do what is right for our neighborhood?not just for today, but for the future. The process must be open and transparent, with input from this association and the residents of Jersey City.

?We urge Mayor Healy and the City to make this the transparent and open process Jersey City deserves. Please don?t sell our neighborhood and our future short.?

http://www.harsimuscove.org/news/8-erie-statement

Well yes, the city could get a better price if they waited for the real estate market to recover. But probably wouldn't be looking to patch the city's budget then either.

I think the point is that when 12' row houses are still going for 5-600k a lot this size could bring more than 4million even in today's market.

Jersey City poo-poos councilman's hope for more Downtown parking

Monday, May 09, 2011, 7:42 PM
By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

Jersey City officials tonight threw cold water on a councilman?s suggestion that the city take a portion of Police Headquarters on Erie Street and transform it into municipal parking.

The city hopes to sell the 8 Erie St. property to help close a budget gap, and a plan set for approval at Wednesday?s council meeting would create a mostly residential mixed-use development with ground-floor commercial space.

Councilman Steve Fulop at the City Council?s April 27 meeting suggested removing the property?s parking lot from the redevelopment plan and creating a municipal parking lot or garage to solve what he said was a need for Downtown parking.

Tonight, the city trotted out a Columbia University professor ? who once taught Fulop, no less ? to say even efficient municipal parking facilities end up being publicly subsidized because they don?t pay for themselves.

There isn?t enough space on the property to build an efficient garage, and a lot or a mechanical garage would also be unfeasible, said professor Thomas Banker of Columbia?s School of International and Public Affairs.

The lot is ?not a candidate for any parking use at all,? Banker said.

City Planner Bob Cotter, meanwhile, presented the council with a document that listed 15 garages in the neighborhood of 8 Erie St. that can be used by members of the public.

Fulop, who left the caucus early to attend a community meeting, was not immediately available to comment on Banker?s assessment