Opinions differ on how serious downtown’s parking problem is, but with the growing number of businesses and residents in the area, the sense of frustration has grown as well. Some desperate commuters even post ads on Craigslist.org, pleading for a parking space.
“Parking downtown is a problem; everyone knows that,” said John Palmeri, who opened the Cilantro Mexican Grill at 127 Weybosset St. three years ago. “I live on the East Side, and I never go downtown because of it. When you think about going shopping there, you just don’t do it because of the parking.”
Palmeri said he feels fortunate he is still in business.
“I have defied the odds by being able to survive for three years,” Palmeri said. “I would say that it’s because none of my customers who come here actually park. The majority of my customers are people in the area who walk here during lunch.”
John Martone, manager of Tazza, in the Alice Building at 250 Westminster St., said in the four years the restaurant and bar has been in business, he has seen minimal improvements in the parking situation, though there are reasons to be hopeful.
“The Travelers Aid building [on Union Street] was torn down, creating a lot that has opened up more parking,” he said. “There is also a lot of talk about parking garages soon to be built in Providence.”
In the meantime, Tazza and 10 other businesses in Downcity started a parking validation system recently where customers get a stamp – and a discount with parking – if they make a purchase of $20 or more.
City leaders and business owners have focused plenty of time and money on turning around negative perceptions of downtown, and there’s been a wave of new construction, including the new GTECH Corp. headquarters across from Providence Place mall, and the newly opened Renaissance Providence Hotel, among others.
That’s the context in which Mayor David N. Cicilline likes to discuss the parking issue.
“Over the past three years, 40 new stores have opened in downtown and new neighborhood developments are in the works. We are working on attracting grocery stores and dry cleaners and the types of businesses needed to sustain a neighborhood,” Cicilline said.
“It is important to remember that not too long ago, downtown was desolate. You could send a bowling ball down the street after 5 p.m.,” Cicilline said. “All the developments can’t be done at once, it takes time. In the interim, the challenge is bringing people into the city, and parking is only a piece of it.”
Not everyone is as positive, though. Cilantro’s Palmeri has watched neighboring businesses pop up and close just as quickly because they aren’t doing as well as they had hoped. One such example is the high-end shoe store Cathers & Coyne, which has a successful location on Bowen’s Wharf in Newport, but closed its store at Westminster and Eddy streets recently.
“There are lots of new shops in the area that opened in the past 12 months or so, and I am concerned about their survival because of this issue,” Palmeri said. “The city is always pushing this city as a great place, but parking is the lifeblood of businesses, and there is none here. It is pretty grim, to be honest. It’s dead down here.”
Cicilline said parking isn’t as bad a problem as it is perceived to be. There are currently more than 40 parking lots and garages in Providence, and downtown Providence has more than 1,100 on-street parking spaces, according to the Downtown Improvement District Web site.
“There are many available spaces, but people want free parking, and they want it right in front of their destination. It’s the suburban mentality and the driving culture, where people just expect it,” Cicilline said.
The city is pushing to build a transportation plan for downtown – The Transit 2020 plan – and additional parking is part of that plan, albeit a relatively small part.
“Both parking and the transit system are long-term plans – the transportation system plan is longer term. The city should have been working on this 20 years ago,” said Cicilline. “We are encouraging the building of additional spaces, but garages won’t solve the problem. We are working on a metropolitan transportation system. Expecting everyone to have a parking space for their car is not our focus.”
The city is pushing for development and investment in a robust public transit system that allows people to leave cars at home, as laid out in the city’s Transit 2020 plan. The plan discourages automobile use through incentives for transit use and disincentives for single passenger automobiles.
One such incentive to reduce the number of automobiles in the city is from the R.I. Public Transit Authority (RIPTA). The plan promotes carpooling by allowing commuters who register a commuter carpool with the Commuter Resource R.I. Program to park at the Providence Place garage at discounted rates. This discounted parking allows people to park all day for as little as $2.50 per car. •
