The Beat Goes On

The Tuesday Common Council agenda is not long, but there are two items on it that are fascinating in light of the recent flooding of the city.

The first is the proposal to amend the developer agreement terms for the Akcess waterfront project. Essentially, Akcess now wants until 2012 to meet their "valuation thresholds" and until 2014 to complete all project activities. What's fascinating is the sheer amount of parking space that would exist in the development area should the Akcess proposal become a reality. Check it out here.

Parking lots represent one of the major "impervious surfaces" that contribute to urban flooding. To pass such developments without addressing the serious potential consequences of water runoff from them is, at this point, at best misguided and at worst legislative negligence.

The second item is a proposal to eliminate all parking on Ohio St. from the Fox River to South Park Ave. The new Wisconsin St. bridge will have 4 lanes of traffic, and planners apparently believe that as traffic from the bridge empties on to Ohio St., it would be "safer" for that street to itself be 4 lanes. (Anyone ever seen a "safe" 4 lane highway running through a mixed-use neighborhood?).

There are small businesses on Ohio St. that have benefited from the on-street parking. The message to them, and really to most businesses outside of some sections of downtown, is that they need to be prepared to provide parking for their customers. As a practical matter, this means creating the biggest parking lot possible. I understand that most cities have had policies in place for years to discourage on-street parking and encourage parking lots, but now such policies (at least in Oshkosh) ought to be seen as "pre-flood thinking."

After the floods (and in the now permanent era of high gas prices), we ought to be planning for fewer and smaller parking lots (i.e. less impervious surfaces), slower traffic, expanded mass transit service, and greatly expanded bike lanes and street walkability.

My guess is that the Akcess extension and the elimination of the parking on Ohio will pass the council (with at least 4 and maybe 5 or 6 votes for each), which will only prove that the beat goes on no matter how high the flood waters.