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Events

What Parking Day showed me about the value of public space and what we sacrifice for cars

September 29, 2021 By Mike Kwan 1 Comment

The morning

As we pulled into the three parking spaces we had secured for Parking Day (September 17th) in Washington D.C., a large black SUV pulled into one of the spaces. The driver ignored me as I glared at him, as well as the large “no parking” permit I had taped on the pole next to his car. He also walked past the parking payment machine. Everything around seemed invisible to him. Anyway, though I had the permit to the space and could get him towed, I decided to hold off on calling for a tow truck unless we really needed it.

Despite some light rain, visitors came by to donate and pick clothes from our “clothing swap” (my girlfriend’s idea) throughout the morning. Thanks to donations from the active “Buy Nothing” Adams Morgan Facebook group that we promoted the event on, our pop-up parklet was pre-stocked with a few full clothing racks and about five bags of perfectly wearable and gently used clothes that anyone could swap out with a piece of their own.

One of our first visitors said he was homeless and camped in a nearby park. We allowed him to take anything he wished, so he picked a nice sweater and jacket for himself, and something nice for his lady friend. Boxes and bags of clothes started to pile up with more donors than takers. Since it was raining, we kept most of the clothes dry inside our small U-Haul moving truck and allowed our parklet visitors to rummage through it. A cheerful visitor with a bag of clothes to donate and a handful of clothes taken, thanked us for having the space. I noticed she had picked up my copy of “Parking and the City” by Donald Shoup. So I asked her, ”Oh, is that the parking book you got there?” (I did not plan to give the book). She explained that she was excited to learn more and that Parking Day sparked her curiosity. I decided right then she was keeping the book. Hopefully one day she lets me know what she thought of it. A future Shoupista, perhaps?

The afternoon

By early afternoon, the rain had gone away and the sun was coming out. I wondered about the SUV left in the unpaid parking space and the man who was now gone for more than four hours. Guess he was lucky he didn’t get ticketed. I was again tempted to call for a towing truck, but worried that the potential backlash was not worth it, so I continued holding off on calling one.

Our pop-up space and moving truck continued to receive more donations from the Buy Nothing community and others who heard about us online. By now, there were more than enough items to give away, and curious passerbys who understandably did not have a piece of clothing prepared to swap in, so we encouraged them to take what they wish and donate if they would like to. One excited passerby that took an item came back with a beautiful vase, which we accepted.

I decided to setup a chess board and sat in front of it, eagerly waiting for someone to sit across and play. I challenged a man who had a glimmer in his eye, but unfortunately did not have time to play. I challenged a DC bikeshare rider on the sidewalk who asked if I was any good. When I said “kinda, not really”, she smiled and said she’d be back (she did not return). But soon enough, I had my first challenger. A confident truck driver, who I believe was parked across the street in the bike lane next to a streatery (sorry bicyclists), noticed the chess board, swaggered over and asked to play a game . He stood across from me facing his truck, never sitting down, perhaps with an eye for traffic enforcement, and we played until we each had taken 6 pieces from each other. A burly passerby wearing a bandana approached our game watching our next moves. Soon the truck driver said he had to return to his job, so he asked the passerby to take his place (he also stood up the entire time, and eventually won). The truck driver later yelled from inside his (still) parked truck, “How’d it go?”

“You WON,” I yelled back.

Another memorable visitor was an older woman with broken English who said she was picking up clothes for children and immigrants from Haiti. After helping her fill up a few bags, she asked if we were planning to stay. After hearing we were, she returned later with another large bag, and filled it up too.

By mid-afternoon, the inside of the moving truck was a bit of a mess, so I decided to organize it a bit. While in the truck, I felt something large bump into the back of the truck with enough force for me to stagger to the side. It was the SUV (still unticketed) that was parked behind me. Without so much as an apology or eye contact, the driver of the SUV quickly backed up, turned and drove away.

“Rude!” I thought, but grateful that I could now extend the pop-up, which we used to place more donation boxes and finally setup our cornhole boards. More visitors walked by and asked us about the space as the weather got better and as we neared the end of the work day. One man who asked about the Parking Reform Network seemed confused that I was advocating for less parking when he believed there wasn’t enough parking in D.C. I explained we also advocate for adjusting parking prices when appropriate, so cars wouldn’t leave their cars parked unnecessarily or all day, which would open up more spaces. He agreed with that!

The end

Was it worth it? While it was more work and a little more costly than anticipated to secure the right permit, insurance, supplies and rentals for the event, I felt great about what we accomplished, had fun, raised awareness about the value of parking reform and spoke with a range of people in the neighborhood, even some familiar faces and friends who helped us out. I talked to the staff from adjacent businesses (including a CBD store and bodega), some of whom looked a bit confused initially, but they mostly smiled and observed the activity outside their buildings after we explained what was happening. We created a safe and accessible space in a very diverse neighborhood, that unintentionally directed a large number of donated clothes to grateful passerbys, who were largely minorities and older adults, and probably less active online or on Facebook.

It was also nice to meet the staff behind the Adams Morgan Business Improvement District, which was invaluable in providing us the required insurance policies (both liability and non-automotive owners insurance, which would’ve been very costly otherwise) while sharing our pop-up on social media. As we winded down for the day, we packed up the remaining bags of clothes for a volunteer with Food Justice DMV, which directs donations and resources for the local immigrant community. Finally, as soon as our traffic cone barricade was removed from the parking spaces at 4:00pm, two cars almost immediately began backing up into the space. Just goes to show how dynamic or demand-based parking in Adams Morgan could’ve helped them to find a parking space somewhere else. Well, it was nice while it lasted.

Later I wondered what could happen if we could maintain the space, forever? How many more spontaneous chess games would we have? How many conversations would we have about the value of parking reform? How many more copies of “Parking and the City” would be given away, and what would changes would that lead to? What if our clothing swap never-ended and nobody in our neighborhood had to buy a new piece of clothing ever again? We may never know…

By the way, did someone take my umbrella?

Mike Kwan is a board member of the Parking Reform Network

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Filed Under: Activism, Events Tagged With: Parking Day

Event: Tackling Parking Reform in Hawaii – Taking Down Parking Lots and Unpaving Paradise.

May 10, 2021 By Jane Wilberding 1 Comment

This free event will take place via Zoom on Thursday, May 20th beginning at 4PM Pacific (7PM Eastern).
To attend this event you must register here.

In February of 2021, the City of Honolulu overhauled its parking regulations for the first time in three decades, making history and eliminating minimum parking requirements. This was largely led by Kathleen Rooney, the Director of Transportation policy and programs at Ulupono Initiative, an organization that invests, educates and advocates to support locally produced food, renewable energy, clean transportation, and wise management of freshwater and waste in Hawaii.

Hawaiian Themed Event Details Graphic. Details are all in Post.

The Parking Reform Network will talk to Kathleen about just how she was able to achieve such a major policy change, exploring the impact parking policy reform has on the community’s climate and transportation goals, discuss the road to passing this ordinance, and highlighting lessons learned, successes, and more! 

Minimum parking requirements make market rate housing more expensive, reduce the number of affordable housing units, decrease the amount of space for non-parking uses, encourage people to own more cars and drive more, and disproportionately burdens the poor, old, young, and disabled, who subsidize transportation for the relatively more affluent. Eliminating minimum parking requirements is critical to parking reform in any city, allowing for more affordable housing costs, achieving climate goals, and creating a more walkable environment for all. 

Don’t miss your chance to hear how Kathleen passed one of the larger examples of off-street parking reform in the country, unusual for the size of the population it impacts and the range of geographic landscape it covers in Hawaii!

We’ll have a Q&A and breakout session with Kathleen after her presentation. 

This free event is made possible by Parking Reform Members, if you would like to support events like these join the network or donate today.

Registration is required for this FREE event. Click here to RSVP.

More about our speaker: Katie is the Ulupono Initiative’s lead on transportation-related policy and programs in advancement of cleaner, multi-modal transportation in Hawai‘i and reducing our dependency on cars. Her current projects include rightsizing parking policies and helping expand immediate transportation choices and access to those choices.

Kathleen Rooney at a bike share station, there is a #66 AIKAHI bus in the background.
Kathleen Rooney – Ulupono Initiative

She brings 15 years of national experience in the transportation and planning, combining both to advance community visions and goals in many diverse communities across the nation. For example, using a combination of analytics and storytelling, she helped two West Virginia towns strategize around health, leading to two trail program implementation grants. She also helped to conceptualize a resiliency center in Washington State, operationalize multimodal accessibility metrics in Florida, and develop a statewide transportation demand management framework for New York State.

Prior to joining the Ulupono team, Katie served as a project manager of Renaissance Planning in Orlando, Florida, and as a senior manager at ICF International in Washington D.C.

Katie holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Maryland and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Tulane University in New Orleans. 

You can support this podcast and a parking reform movement. Join the network or donate today.

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Filed Under: Education, Events, Minimum Requirements Tagged With: events, Hawaii, minimums

Event: How we won parking cash-out for Washington, D.C., and how you can too!

March 19, 2021 By Mike Kwan 1 Comment

Date: March 30th
Time: 7-8pm Eastern Time (US & Canada)

Cheryl Cort
Cheryl Cort

The Parking Reform Network is excited to welcome Cheryl Cort, the Policy Director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth to speak about the campaign for a Washington D.C. bill to require parking cash-out as part of employee commuter benefits. The “Transportation Benefits Equity Amendment Act” passed in April 2020 requires employers who provide free or subsidized parking to also offer benefits to employees who choose other ways to commute to work, such as taking transit, walking or biking. In a city where most residents don’t even drive to work, this is a big victory!

Why should parking reformers pay attention to parking cash-out? For starters, parking cash-out can reduce the need for new or existing employee parking and the costs of leasing more space. Secondly, parking reform policies sometimes can clash with drivers who want free or plentiful parking, or communities that have limited transportation options, as it may be unclear what the immediate benefit is to them. However, parking cash-out is one idea that may quickly find supporters from more diverse groups. As Donald Shoup (who first developed the idea) wrote, parking cash-out comes close to the goal of pareto optimality:

Parking cash-out makes many people better off while making few, if any, worse off. Commuters are better off because they get a flexible new fringe benefit, one that allows each person to choose the commute option best for her or him. Employers are better off because offering the new fringe benefit costs them little or nothing, and helps to attract and retain workers. The government is better off because tax revenues increase with no change in the tax rates. Finally, society is better off with less traffic and cleaner air. Economists describe a change as “Pareto optimal” if it makes some people better off without making others worse off—a great asset in public policy.

Shoup, Donald “Parking Cash Out”

Sounds like a win-win for all! Join this free event and get some insights on how parking cash-out can be won in your city: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcoce2srzMuH9HdHfw-w5BelLGF-guiwhnM

We’ll have a Q&A and breakout session with Cheryl after her presentation.

This free event is made possible by members like you.

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Filed Under: Announcements, Events Tagged With: parking cashout, parking reform, washington dc

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