Tacoma: Downtown parking editorial misses mark

Re: “Don’t be careless creating car-less nirvana in Tacoma,” (TNT editorial, 6/3).

Healthy and vibrant downtowns will always have competitive parking. It’s simply a part of city life. Lots of parking in a city means no one wants to be in that area, or that developable land is being wasted.

The answer to a high demand for parking isn’t to mandate more parking; it’s to better manage our existing spaces and to explore how else we can increase mobility, including planning growth around transit-oriented development and bicycle-pedestrian infrastructure.

There are valid concerns expressed in this editorial, particularly around mobility for our senior population. It’s also likely true that Downtown Tacoma’s on-street parking program needs a big update to reflect the growing population and continued popularity of our awesome downtown businesses.

Other parts of the editorial, including the notions that parking should be equally prioritized in planning and that there’s a city conspiracy to make parking difficult, completely miss the mark.

As a matter of policy, cities need to shift away from prioritizing cars and toward prioritizing people and where they work, live and play. Tacoma is no exception.

This story was originally published June 12, 2018 at 4:22 PM with the headline "Tacoma: Downtown parking editorial misses mark."