Category Archives: Carrboro

On Panzanella Closing and The Responsibility of Community-Owned Businesses

Posted on by
3
Panzanella Restaurant

Panzanella Restaurant (photo by Flickr user Dread Pirate Jeff)

 

Late this afternoon, via social media linked to a News and Observer article, came the gut punch news that beloved local restaurant Panzanella is closing.  On a personal level, this is just very, very sad.  Since DW and I got married over a decade ago, we have celebrated all sorts of major life events, and perhaps most of them– graduations, birthdays, wedding anniversaries, rare visits from cherished friends, you name it – at Panzanella.  With such good food, valuable relationships with local farmers, brewers, and other food producers, not to mention what has always been consistently a warm and friendly staff– this is a big surprise that nobody saw coming.

The restaurant business is a very challenging one, with many promising places going under less than a year after opening.  But this is no ordinary restaurant- it is part of the Weaver Street Market Co-op, billed as “Carrboro’s Community-Owned Italian Eatery” on the website www.panzanella.coop.  With this ownership structure, one would think that instead of making a unilateral decision to close, presumably by the Board of the Weaver Street Market Co-Op, there would have been some consulting with the broad pool of owners (I’ve been a member for 12 years, and at least 8,000-10,000 others have joined since I did)  about their perceived value of keeping Panzanella open, and what financial or other resources were needed to keep the restaurant open in its current location, or to explore what other choices beyond “close the doors and lay people off” existed.

There are a whole host of questions that come to mind that might have led to a different result, including:

  • The news article talks about an increase in costs and a drop in sales. Did Carr Mill Mall raise the rent?  If not, what costs are driving the closure? Are the same cost challenges facing the co-op’s grocery operations?
  • Did WSM consider relocating Panzanella within Carrboro? There are supposedly spaces for dining at the new PTA Thrift store in either the current or second phase. Would that have been a place the restaurant could have relocated to?
  • What about shrinking Panzanella’s relatively large dining room?  If half of the dining area could be turned back over to Carr Mill Mall and rented to a retail store, would a smaller version of the restaurant with the same kitchen be able to survive?
  • There’s a mention that the restaurant made more sense when the bakery and offices shared space with the restaurant.  But the bakery and office functions are now mostly (I presume, someone correct me if I’m wrong) at the food house in Hillsborough. That’s either new rent or a new mortgage compared to the “everybody-crowded-into-the-back-of-Panzanella” scenario.  Why is the restaurant suddenly characterized as a drain on the bottom line but the relatively new food house is not?
  • If the cooking/back of house space is underutilized at Panzanella, was going bigger-say, STARTING a real full-service bakery– ever considered?  I think most WSM members, when pressed, will admit that despite the best efforts to get stuff from the ovens at the food house to Carrboro and Chapel Hill, the freshness of the baked goods has definitely declined a small but perceptible amount since the baking function left the Carrboro store.  Bread and Butter in Chapel Hill is nice but it’s hard to imagine it’s meeting that need alone when Durham has Scratch, Loaf, Ninth Street Bakery and Daisy Cakes all within close proximity to each other.
  • The Carrboro store just finished its big remodel.  Part of this outcome was supposed to be a 60-80% reduction in utility bills.  Were none of the savings from this ongoing operational cost improvement enough to transition Panzanella to a more sustainable business model?
  • Are we owners going to get a big dividend this year?  After this, the answer better be “NO.”  If Panzanella closed down and consumer-owners received a big dividend, and the retention of that dividend might have kept Panzanella open, then that would be a huge mistake.  Frankly, most of the long-term member base is used to non-existent to miniscule dividends per dollar spent at WSM cash registers.
  • Was this discussed at the September 9th Annual Meeting in any way?  I can’t imagine it was; it would have been big news then, too.  Why not?
  • The 2013 Annual report for WSM shows a 2.6% net profit for both 2012 and 2013 after a very lean year in 2011.  Sales growth is steady (see page 3), averaging about 8% over the last three years, and the report appropriately boasts about saving more profits and reducing debt and increasing equity for the co-op.  Finances for Panzanella are not broken out so it’s hard to understand how much any dynamics of operating Panzanella did or did not contribute to threatening these positive trends for Weaver Street Market.
  • The cafe at WSM is about to be renovated/expanded.  Could a smaller version of Panzanella be incorporated into the expanded cafe?
  • The Draft (?) Vision 2022 document posted by Geoff Gilson online dated May 17, 2012 lists 10 strategies to help WSM reach their 2022 goals.  (I feel compelled to say that I have no idea if this is an official document but it would be a very strange thing for anyone to take the time to fake) Strategy Number 3 is “Engage owners more fully.”  Sub-topics under this heading include “Communicate about the co-op and the larger industry,” “survey owners regularly” and “create store advisory groups.”  These are all good ideas- why weren’t any of them pursued in making this big decision?  If the restaurant was struggling, why not empanel a Panzanella advisory group from owners to help problem-solve?

Decisions and Values

I recognize that at a certain level, this was a decision about dollars and cents informed by values, and that businesses come and go or change how they do things all the time.  When Facebook changes their layout for the umpteenth time or undoes some other privacy setting, we all know:

  1. They didn’t ask our opinion and they aren’t going to
  2. They believe that their stockholders will benefit financially from this decision in some way

But the whole point of a co-operative business model is to cultivate a better version of capitalism than a single-bottom-line approach.  Weaver Street Market has been  trying to walk that talk for 25 years, with what I would describe as better than average success.  I appreciate that, and have spent money in their store on products I know I could pay a little bit less for elsewhere, even within walking distance- because I have trusted that the local community impact of the dollar I spend at WSM is better than paying less in cold numbers somewhere else.

The flip side of this deal is that consumer-owners and worker-owners have the right to expect more from WSM, especially when they use the phrase “Community-Owned” in their materials, over and over again. The core of WSM’s brand is that there is a “Values Conversation” between the owners and management, that it is a two-way conversation, and that it is ongoing.

With that in mind, I hereby put the list of questions above on the table for Weaver Street Market.  I also hope that if Weaver Street Market rises to the occasion and grapples publicly with these questions before the end of the year, that they do so starting from a posture of MAYBE THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE TO CLOSING THE RESTAURANT, and if so, we should tell the owners what that is, even if it means sacrificing or delaying bring other priorities to fruition.  In doing so, WSM may find that those of us disappointed in this news may well reach the same conclusion that they made without us, or we may all find a third way forward that is neither a closing nor the apparently challenging status quo.

So Weaver Street Market leadership- care to comment?

Quick Thoughts on Carrboro Music Festival 2013

Posted on by
2

Another Carrboro Music Festival (CMF) is in the books, and generally speaking, it was a great afternoon.  The timing of the event usually provides some of the best weather central North Carolina can offer, temperature/humidity-wise, and today delivered on that count in spades.  I biked all over the place, taking advantage of our new bicycle facilities on Main Street and the elevator to the roof of the parking deck. (more on that later)

As usual, the music was tremendous- I caught several excellent performances spanning a slew of genres, mostly from people who live in town or nearby.  The Tim Smith Band‘s reggae-influenced cover of “Into the Mystic” by Van Morrison was my favorite surprise of the day- just flat out awesome, even in a set that pretty much killed for 40 minutes straight. Doug Largent‘s organ playing was a great joy to hear in person for the first time as well.  DC and I closed out the night at Steel String listening to Wes Collins‘ riveting “Waiting,” and then packed up the stroller and headed for home.

wes-collins-danny-gotham

Wes Collins (standing) & Danny Gotham at Steel String Brewery

Beyond enjoying the day, though, I spent a portion of my time wandering around thinking about what the CMF tells us about Carrboro for the other 364 days of the year.

Here are my take-aways. Unsurprisingly with me, they are public space and transport-centric:

  • Lots of cities talk about “managing/cultivating/some-action-verbing” their brand, and I have previously heard that a good brand “delivers on a promise.” Carrboro has a brand and it lives it without much fuss- the town is informal, fun, musical, artistic, accepting, and comfortable with a certain amount of chaos in service of those things. The CMF is not the town putting on a persona for a day; it’s just Carrboro being Carrboro, only more than usual. That’s a good thing.
  • It’s great to see buses running in Carrboro on Sundays.  We need our transit network to be a seven-day-a-week service. I asked Chapel Hill Transit staff and they said that a total of 679 passengers rode the two buses that provided Shuttle service on Sunday.
  • Even on the day of the year when the most visitors the town receives at once are there, traffic just isn’t that bad.  And maybe the alternatives to get downtown help a lot with that, but still.
  • The parking deck was open, but not from the side that most people were likely to get the chance to take advantage of it.  Even so, Levels 1-2 and a small part of 3 in the deck were filled.  The roof, 4, and 5 were mostly empty even after going past all the spaces reserved for the hotel. Check it out:

  • 3rd Level Parking Deck During Late Afternoon CMF

    3rd Level Parking Deck During Late Afternoon CMF

  • The sidewalks on our major streets need to be wider.  Walking in Carrboro can sometimes feel tenuous under usual conditions, but the CMF crowds exacerbate this by pointing out how deteriorated some of our sidewalks are in our most heavily-trafficked areas. I’m thinking particularly of the sidewalks just east of the railroad tracks on both sides of Main St. Hopefully we can plan for some improvements here for the pieces that 300 East Main’s redevelopment will not address.
  • Closing Weaver Street between the intersection with Main/Roberson and the Weaver/Greensboro intersection yields a pretty minimal impact to the overall traffic conditions but provides a fantastic livability dividend to everyone who gets to enjoy the street. We’ve had a long-term closure of this space for the Weaver Street re-construction and multiple events like CMF and Carrboro Open Streets show us that the town can not only survive, but THRIVE- without that roadway capacity.  We should think about what an opportunity that is for Carrboro to create a public space unlike any other in a town our size.  More on that in a future post.

 

Did you have any observations you’d like to share from  CMF 2013?  Please add them in the comments!

 

 

The Distribution of Population in Orange County and the Site of the Southern Orange County Library

Posted on by
1

Back in the spring, at an Orange Board of County Commissioners meeting where I and other citizens spoke in favor of building an urban library in Southern Orange County, one of the most common themes from county staff in the discussion was that a significant number of rural residents would be served by this library, and that they would come to the library by car and need a place to park, implying that this criterion should play a primary, and perhaps even decisive role in the siting decision of the library.

For the remainder of this post, let’s put aside the question of whether or not parking is easier for rural residents in an urban or suburban location, and just look at where the population of Southern Orange County is located.

Orange County 2010 Census Population Data

Orange County, in addition to containing all or part of four municipalities (Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, and Mebane) is split into seven townships. These townships are more or less remnants of a briefly operating system of local governance in the post-civil war period that lasted less than 15 years. Nevertheless, the county still gathers data based on these geographical boundaries which can help us examine the present-day distribution of population.  In the 2010 Census, the total population of Orange County was estimated to be 133,801. Below is a map of Orange County townships and their 2010 Census population:

 

Orange County Population by Township, 2010

Orange County Population by Township, 2010

As you can see, over 75% of county residents live either in the Chapel Hill or Hillsborough townships, with almost 68% of the county population in Chapel Hill township alone. The Chapel Hill township contains both the town of Chapel Hill and the town of Carrboro, as well as just under 14,000 residents living slightly outside the Chapel Hill /  Carrboro town limits.

Implications for Library Siting

One of the criteria that County staff discussed in their prepared memo on March 19, 2013 was:

“Able to provide comprehensive library services to all the residents of southern Orange County.”

Given this criteria, I believe it is reasonable to say that “Southern Orange County” could be reasonably defined as the two southernmost townships, Bingham and Chapel Hill. These two townships had a combined population of 94,498 in the 2010 Census.  Of those 94,498 people, 93% of them lived in Chapel Hill township, and 7% of them lived in Bingham township. This means that if you’re trying to maximize your ability to serve “all the residents of Southern Orange County,” you should probably focus heavily on how you’re going to serve the people in Chapel Hill township most effectively.

In the past few months, a new visualization tool has appeared that gives us an even closer look at population distributions, the Census Dotmap website, which maps every single person in the USA using one dot per person in their Census Block, the smallest level we can look at the data without actually placing people in their homes, which the Census will not do for privacy reasons.  Here’s a look at the entire county using that tool:

Census 2010 Dotmap with Orange County Township Boundaries

Census 2010 Dotmap with Orange County Township Boundaries

The simple take-away is that the darker the section of the map, the more people live there.  I drew in the county boundary using a graphics tool so if you go to the Census Dotmap website, don’t expect to see the townships there.  Still, even without the townships drawn in, you’ll find that you can pick out the county border pretty well along the Alamance and Durham county lines. It’s harder with the Chatham and Person/Caswell borders, but the effects of the Orange County Joint Planning Agreement and rural buffer are still evident.

You’ll see that Southern Orange County’s population core is in the sections of Chapel Hill and Carrboro roughly bounded by Estes Drive on the north, MLK/Hillsborough/Country Club on the east, Fordham Blvd/Clubreth/Smith Level Rd (including Southern Village) on the south, and Old Fayetteville Rd on the west. Scroll down for a closer look at that population core, traced in dark red. For orientation, the primary commercial section of Franklin Street is highlighted in Carolina Blue. The sunburst graphics are as close an approximation as I can make at this scale of the following locations that have been mentioned as potential Southern Orange County library sites:

  • 1128 Hillsborough Rd (Orange)
  • 401 Fidelity St (Blue)
  • 301 W Main St – Town Hall (Purple)
  • 201 S Greensboro St – Roberson St Lot (Red)
  • 300 E Main St (Green)
Southern Orange County Population and Various Potential Library Sites

Southern Orange County Population and Various Potential Library Sites

The county staff’s preferred site, 1128 Hillsborough Rd (shown in Orange) from March 2013 is outside the “core of the core” section of Chapel Hill Township, while the other four sites are within that critical center of population.

Recap: Southern Orange County Population

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be discussing more benefits of building the library in the population heart of Southern Orange County. But for now, I’ll close by reviewing the following facts about Orange County population.

  1. Unless there is a sudden, drastic change of plans to put the Southern Orange County library somewhere north of Eubanks Rd, the existing Orange County library on West Margaret Ln in Hillsborough will be the closest library to pretty much everyone in the five northernmost townships: Cheeks, Hillsborough, Eno, Little River, and Caldwell.
  2. Of the combined population of the two southern townships, the population split is 93% Chapel Hill township, 7% Bingham township.
  3. Of the combined population of the two southern townships, 78%, or almost 4 out of every 5 residents, live in the Chapel Hill or Carrboro town limits.
  4. If the county staff’s linear projections are correct, Bingham Township will add 2,686 residents by the year 2050; while Chapel Hill township will add 51,996 residents by 2050.
  5. If the county staff’s exponential projections are correct, Bingham Township will add 3,854 residents by the year 2050; while Chapel Hill township will add 90,825 residents by 2050.

 

With the exception of the graphics, I got all of this population and projection information from the County website’s demographics page. This data acknowledges that nearly 80% of the people most likely to use the library are in-town residents of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, and the county’s own projections looking forward indicate significantly higher projected growth in Chapel Hill and Carrboro town limits than in unincorporated Chapel Hill Township or Bingham Township.

Future analysis of any potential library sites should acknowledge this baseline data about where population is located.

Carrboro’s Summer of Bike-Ped Infrastructure, Part 2

Posted on by
3

Earlier in the month I covered some improvements to the local pedestrian grid on Davie Rd and at the intersection of James St and Hillsborough Rd.  However, the most high-profile change to the Carrboro street grid this summer is undoubtedly the Main St Road Diet.

Definition: Road Diet

First, what’s a “Road Diet?” Simply put, it’s the reconfiguration of a roadway to remove excess space for cars, and the reassigning of that space for the use of cyclists and/or pedestrians, and in some cases, transit vehicles.  Carrboro’s road diet on Main St involved taking a 4-lane road section with no bike lanes down to a 2-lane road with a center turn lane, and bicycle lanes in both directions.

Sample Cross-Sections

Recently I’ve been working as a beta tester for some programmers developing a terrific tool called StreetMix that allows non-engineers to propose street cross-sections for their communities.  Here’s the basic before vs after comparison in graphic format.  Where you see “Bus Lane” please simply interpret that to be a drive lane in this case.  I was just trying to pick different vehicles in the StreetMix program and missed the label.

StreetMix: West Main St Carrboro Before Road DietAnd here’s what the AFTER configuration is:

StreetMix: West Main St Carrboro After Road Diet

Benefits of the West Main Street Road Diet

There are several immediate benefits that this project creates for the community:

  • Shortens the maximum number of moving vehicle lanes that a pedestrian must traverse to cross Main St.  Instead of 44 feet of cars, the pedestrian only needs to cover 33 feet where they need to be on their maximum guard for their safety. This is of particular benefit to children, senior citizens, those with mobility impairments who walk slower than average, and parents pushing strollers.
  • Fulfills a recommendation of the Carrboro Safe Routes to School action plan and provides safety benefits in a school zone.
  • Completes a major gap in the bicycle infrastructure network.

 

I want to place major emphasis on the final point in the list above. For many years, Carrboro has been working slowly and steadily to expand its bike lane and greenway network, with most major street segments in town represented.

The map below shows how effectively Carrboro has been at placing bike lanes on its streets. Green lines represent greenways and off-road bicycle facilities.  Orange lines represent wide outside shoulders.  Purple lines represent on-street bike lanes. Notice the big gap in the purple network starting at the intersection of West Main and Hillsborough Rd, which then extends south from there past Poplar, Fidelity, and Weaver St, all the way to Jones Ferry Rd.

The road diet turns that grey section to purple and completes several linkages among SIX other roads with existing bike lanes!

Pre-Road-Diet: West Main St Bike Network Gap

Pre-Road-Diet: West Main St Bike Network Gap. Map produced by Town of Chapel Hill

The reason is this is so important is that some of the best research on the propensity of Americans to bicycle for transportation, even in super-bike-friendly cities like Portland, Oregon, indicates that the largest proportion of the populace falls into what Portland refers to as “Interested But Concerned” potential bike riders.  These folks would LIKE to bicycle more, but have concerns about personal safety, and generally prefer to bicycle in a space that is clearly identified as being for cyclists first and motorists second.  A bike lane meets that criteria for many people, and this road diet fills in a major gap in a network of facilities that address a perceived safety issue for many potential riders.

While I would still like to see us figure out ways to build even more separated bike-only facilities both on and off streets, this is a most welcome improvement to the Carrboro cycling infrastructure.

Congratulations to the town and NCDOT for working together to make this happen!  Look below for some photos of the implemented Road Diet.

Pre-Road Diet

road-diet-before-picPost-Road Diet

road-diet-after-pic

Carrboro’s Summer of Bike-Ped Infrastructure, Part 1

Posted on by
1

Summer is construction season, and as we approach the middle of August, there are several projects nearing completion in Carrboro that will make life better for pedestrians and bicyclists, and a few others that have made significant progress.  If you haven’t spotted some of this work going on around town, here’s a quick review of two of the notable projects. I will cover others in a subsequent post.

James St / Hillsborough St Intersection Improvements

James St / Hillsborough St Improvements

James St / Hillsborough St Improvements

Perhaps the smallest project, though still very worthwhile, is the curb expansion and installation of an island at the intersection of James St and Hillsborough St.  This intersection is a critical location for middle school students  walking to McDougle Middle School.  Quail Roost Drive is the final segment of many walks to the school since it provides the most direct path to the building via the gate at the end of Quail Roost that opens onto the school’s running track. The new island, expanded curb, and improved crosswalks will calm traffic and reduce turning speeds at this intersection.

In the photo to the right from Google Earth, you can see the cones (representing a potential curb enlargement) that NCDOT put out for most of the last year to gauge motorist, pedestrian, and cyclist behavior prior to the permanent installation. The NCDOT Board awarded the town a Small Construction Funds stipend of $40,000 to complete this improvement, which is part of the town of Carrboro’s Safe Routes to School Action Plan.

I’m really impressed with the way the town and NCDOT worked together on this with the trial of the various configurations of cones to represent the island and curb extension.  I hope that Carrboro Planning and Public Works will find a new problem intersection to tackle next.

Davie Rd Sidewalk

Davie Rd Sidewalk In Progress

Davie Rd Sidewalk In Progress

Another great project that is providing an important missing link to the pedestrian network is the sidewalk presently being built along Davie Rd from Jones Ferry Rd to Fidelity Street. This will be a 5-foot wide sidewalk on the east side of Davie Rd with a storm sewer as part of the design.

 

According to the American Community Survey 2005 – 2009 five year estimates, the Census Tract in which this sidewalk sits has one of the highest walk-to-work shares of any Census Tract in Orange County, at almost 5%. Another 19% use public transportation to get to work, which means that almost a quarter of the working adults in this area start their journey to work on foot.

 

Hopefully this piece of sidewalk will be completed along the full length of Davie from Fidelity to Main St in the future. There are a few other projects underway in town that I will cover in Part 2 of this topic.

 

When Your Craft Brewery Turns Parking Into Space for People, Thank Them

Posted on by
Reply
Steel String Raises a Tent

Steel String Raises a Tent

I had the pleasure of drinking my first Steel String Brewery beer several weeks back, outside on a small sliver of sidewalk between the front door of the taproom and the parking row just off the street. I believe I had the Rubber Room Session Ale and it was terrific.

Steel String Brewery Insta-Patio

The Steel String Brewery Insta-Patio

I caught up with a friend I hadn’t seen in a few months, enjoyed a good beer and appreciated the light breeze in the afternoon shade of the building.  It was almost perfect, the lone negative being a few cars pulling in and out right in front of us while we enjoyed our beverages.

A few weeks later, low and behold, Steel String has solved this issue and made a short stretch of South Greensboro Street more civilized, SAFER, and pedestrian friendly in the process.  In short, they’ve filled in the two parking spaces that abut the Wendy’s drive-thru exit with tables and chairs, and at certain times, a tent.

Why has this small change made such a big difference?  Let’s take a look. First, below is a Google Street View orientation to Steel String’s location, which is in a storefront that used to be occupied by the Trading Post used furniture store. Use the mouse to pan left and right in the image below, and you’ll see that the pedestrian conditions deteriorate pretty quickly once you walk from the corner of Main St and S. Greensboro to the first of the two driveway access points in and out of Wendy’s.

After that, while there is a sidewalk between the two Wendy’s driveways, the space in front of Steel String and restaurant Glass Half Full is a continuous row of parking.  Any parked car could pull out at any time, directly back into a pedestrian, and anyone trying to park could pull in off the street at the same time.  This is a pretty unsafe situation for a pedestrian who needs to constantly be looking in multiple directions to avoid getting hit on this stretch of pseudo-sidewalk.


View Larger Map
By turning these parking spaces into seating for their patrons, the restaurant has effectively removed the hazard to the pedestrians described above in both directions.  No cars are backing out of those spaces anymore, and no cars are turning in off of South Greensboro Street.  As for two parking spaces being out of commission, well, the town just bought several dozen spaces across the street and…it’s a bar! Do we really need to encourage people to drive to bars by requiring free parking right in front of the bar?

This type of local, small-scale, but meaningful transformation is in keeping with some of the best ideas springing up from a movement called tactical urbanism, which seeks to make quick changes to streets and neighborhoods to make them more people-friendly. The most well-publicized of these activities is PARKing Day, in which people all over the world convert metered parking spaces to mini-parks, such as in this public radio story from Colorado.

My key point here is this- Steel String has done something to delight their customers and the neighborhood, and inadvertently struck a positive blow for pedestrian safety. Good for them and good for us. If this wasn’t pre-cleared with the Town, let’s hope the official reaction is in keeping with the best Carrboro traditions of simply not freaking out when an informal market asserts itself, or in this case, informal awesome streetside public space asserting itself.

If we want to double down on a good idea, let’s ask Glass Half Full if they want to convert some or all of the next ten spaces to sidewalk dining!

Town of Cary Pursues New Downtown Library with Wake County’s Help

Posted on by
Reply
Downtown Cary by Flickr User Paul J Buda

Downtown Cary by Flickr User Paul J Buda

While this blog’s primary focus is Carrboro, I think it is important to stand up and clap for what looks like a good decision in the making a few miles to our east in Cary. Specifically, the town is working cooperatively with Wake County to put the next iteration of their library in their downtown, and multiple town council members seem to understand the benefits of integrating the library with a broader set of community activities.

Councilman Don Frantz suggested that commercial development wrapped around the parking deck could defray the cost of the public facility.

Bingo! This is one of the most important points that downtown library supporters in Carrboro have been trying to make: a standalone library on county-owned land is a public facility that is only operated using public revenues. A library occupying the floor of a mixed-use building with public and private uses will have some private investment to help with its construction and ongoing operations costs and may even help catalyze further development of a downtown project that is close to “ready to go,” but not quite there yet.

One of the refrains that was repeated earlier this spring in the county staff’s deeply flawed arguments for 1128 Hillsborough Rd as a library site was that there would be opportunities to co-locate the library with a park so that children could play there, and lest anyone believe Cary’s inclinations should validate that idea, they describe the park as follows: “Cary leaders are thinking less of a recreational park than a carefully designed common ground filled with ‘hidden treasures’ and framed by what would be the largest buildings in downtown.”  I think it’s hard to overstate the differences between the type of park Cary is planning downtown and what MLK park on Hillsborough Rd is intended to be.

The article goes on to note that the library would be located adjacent to a hotel. It’s hard not to notice that the library siting decision is clearly linked to economic development in the minds of the town staff and elected officials, and they see opportunity in placing the library downtown.

Cary gets it.  Carrboro gets it.  Wake County gets it.  Orange County? Stay tuned…

Email Question From a Reader: Parking Pricing and Equity

Posted on by
4

In response to my last post on why Performance Parking Pricing is better than greater enforcement of 2-hour parking limits, I received an outstanding response from a reader via email.  Here are some key excerpts:

Hey Patrick.  I have been closely following the discussions about parking in Carrboro.  I subscribe to your CityBeautiful21 blog and I have watched all the recent archived video of Board of Aldermen meetings where parking was discussed.
I’m concerned that you have not addressed the impact [of parking pricing] on less wealthy citizens of Carrboro.   Since our bus system is not yet full service, particularly during nights and weekends, even folks who live in southern Carrboro often must drive to downtown…Your assumption that text enabled cell phones or smart phones would be available to most potential parkers is part of this issue.

You may have a solution to this problem but I have not heard a solution discussed. One idea that comes to mind would be a parking decal made available (one per in-town residence) to allow free parking, at least for some duration.  This has the advantage of favoring Carrboro residents since they already pay for development of parking facilities through their property taxes.

If such a decal would undercut the revenue stream needed to support a system like ParkMe, perhaps it could be reserved for citizens in financial need. Well thanks for listening.  I have great hopes that Carrboro will proactively address parking.  I understand that this is a key ingredient to making “small town urban” work well.

First, it’s wonderful to get such thoughtful feedback on a post. There are several good points the reader raises here; let’s take them one by one.

Parking Pricing Affects People of Different Incomes in Different Ways

This may seem patently obvious, but it’s worth being clear about it. Lower-income individuals are more impacted by parking pricing than higher-income individuals, especially if they lack alternative ways to access destinations that have priced parking. Therefore, if we are concerned about treating all citizens equally, then it is reasonable and healthy to ask if adding parking pricing to downtown Carrboro can be done in an equitable manner.

Addressing Equity: Are There Ways to Avoid Paying to Park, or to Pay Less to Park?

First, if parking pricing affects lower-income individuals more than higher-income ones, is there a way for a lower-income individual to avoid paying to park while still coming downtown?

Under Performance Parking Pricing, the answer is a big YES.  Remember the primary principle of Performance Parking Pricing: charge the LOWEST PRICE POSSIBLE that keeps at least 15% of the parking spaces in a group empty and available, INCLUDING ZERO dollars per unit of time.

For those who wish to avoid parking costs downtown, the first strategy is to drive downtown at a time when demand for lots leaves them more than 15% empty even when unpriced, because at those times, low-demand lots should be FREE.  Below is a lot in Chapel Hill that is priced from 8 am to 6 pm on Saturdays, and this is at about 11 am on a Saturday morning.  If this lot were in a Performance Parking Pricing system, it would be a prime candidate to lower the hourly rate, perhaps to zero, on Saturdays around lunchtime.

Underused Chapel Hill Parking Lot

Underused Chapel Hill Parking Lot

But time-shifting of a trip is not the only way to avoid or lower parking costs downtown.  Under a Performance Parking Pricing system, it is likely (and appropriate) that parking prices should vary by lot.  The lot across the street from the Station and Armadillo Grill will surely be fuller most evenings than the West Weaver St and Town Hall lots. Accordingly, if either of these lots have more than a 15% vacancy rate, they should be unpriced, and someone who wishes to avoid a parking charge simply walks a few extra blocks to their destination.

Addressing Equity: Improving Non-Auto Access to Downtown Carrboro

The reader gets at an additional part of the solution to equity concerns when he states:

“Since our bus system is not yet full service, particularly during nights and weekends, even folks who live in southern Carrboro often must drive to downtown…”

He is getting at another issue that we will need to address to improve access to downtown- the fact that bus service to and from downtown Carrboro at night and on the weekends is limited compared to its weekday, rush hour levels of service.  There are a few things we can do to improve this situation that could be the subject of several subsequent blog posts, so I will leave those details to another day.  However, Performance Parking Pricing can bring revenue to the table to help pay for extending transit services later and adding route frequency, or to help invest in safer bike routes into the downtown core.

Our local transit service today is very good for a US system in a medium-sized community.  However, if we want to take it to the next level of success, getting a wider service span across the day to 10:00 or 11:00 pm on most routes would help a lot.  Fortunately, Chapel Hill Transit is already working on this, with the following improvements recommended in the budget for the coming year:

  • Extended weekday evening trips on the CM, CW, D and J bus routes
  • Later trips for the F route
  • Earlier hours for the Saturday JN route
  • Additional Saturday hours for the CM and CW routes

 

Another Advantage for Performance Pricing Parking: More Equitable Than Flat-Rate Parking

What is interesting about the equity question and parking is that having flat-rate parking, such as $1/hour regardless of demand for spaces, takes away the two opportunities for equity above that involve time-shifting or choosing a lower-priced lot. This is another reason to figure out how to start charging for parking in Carrboro under a Performance Parking Pricing format rather than a flat-rate, maximum-hour limited format.

Technology and Equity: Can We Make Performance Pricing Parking Work Without Tripping Over the Digital Divide?

Parking Zone Signage in Asheville

Parking Zone Signage in Asheville

Another issue raised by the reader is whether or not a system that relies heavily on phone technology to pay for parking is exclusionary of lower-income individuals who are less likely to own smartphones.  This is a good question. Fortunately, many of the systems sold by vendors who produce parking technology have recognized this issue, and have worked to create systems that combine pay-by-smartphone apps with pay-by-text solutions, as well as on-street kiosks offering pay-by-credit card and pay-by-cash choices as well.

The sign at the right from Asheville even has a phone number you can call and speak to someone to facilitate payment in case you do not have a smartphone.

Over the long term, the trend towards all phones being smartphones is also likely to eliminate gaps in access and narrow the digital divide. I just checked with my wireless provider’s website and found that smartphones by Apple, Nokia, Samsung, and Blackberry were all available for less than $1.00 with a two-year contract. The chart below on smartphone market penetration by age and income also seems to support that we are headed this way.

Smartphone Use by Age Group and Income

Smartphone Use by Age Group and Income

 

Looking at this chart, it seems like age is a much more powerful predictor of smartphone usage than income.

Is There a Role for Decals Regarding Parking In Downtown Lots?  I Don’t Think So

Finally, the reader asks if having decals for town citizens, either for all citizens or limited by income, that would allow some form of limited free parking– would be an alternative we should consider.  My initial assessment is that the other ways of addressing the equity questions I discuss above are more efficient at providing choice and opportunity in allowing low-income individuals to minimize parking costs, and also minimize the management burden and costs of the town.

The experience in other (UCSD) communities (U of FL) that are in or adjacent to college towns also suggest that with many households moving in and out each year, the distribution of decals to residents creates the opportunity for a black market in parking decals to emerge where local residents who can obtain a permit may actually “rent” it to higher-income individuals or to students who would park downtown for longer periods of time than desired, perhaps to commute to campus.

Given the concerns the Aldermen have voiced regarding park and riders coming to downtown after the pricing of Chapel Hill Transit lots begins in August, this decal approach would seem to be in conflict with strategies designed to manage any spillover effects from Carrboro Plaza / Jones Ferry Rd to downtown.

Bottom Line: Equity Is Possible Under Performance Parking Pricing; The Reader Is Right About Improving Alternatives and Making Sure Payment is Accessible

It was a joy to get such thoughtful feedback on a post.  It encouraged me to think in greater depth about the issue, and to look at it through a prism that many of us hold dear in Carrboro.

I think it is clear that Performance Parking Pricing could be implemented in Carrboro without having serious equity impacts because of the choices it provides in terms of motorists having access to different lots at different times at different prices, that for the near term, will almost certainly be FREE at least part of the time. If some of the revenue from a Performance Parking System could be dedicated to support transit and bike access to downtown from lower-income neighborhoods, then the equity proposition of this program looks even better.

The reader is absolutely correct that we need more alternatives to get to downtown at more hours so that those who have strong financial incentives to avoid parking costs have choices available to them, and that while smartphone technology is great, we need to ensure that there are other ways to pay for parking that don’t require you to own an expensive, latest-model phone. I commend him for putting this topic on the table!

In closing, while I certainly encourage anyone to join the discussion in the comments, I know that others may wish to submit comments by email.  To make that easier, and to avoid spam for me and you, I’ve set up a contact form as part of the site, now available here.

Performance Parking Pricing Is Better For Businesses Than Enforcing Free, Time-Limited Parking

Posted on by
4

Coming Soon to Carrboro?

A few weeks back, the Carrboro Aldermen held a discussion about parking, mostly pertaining to downtown.  After some debate, the sense of the Board majority (though not all Board members) was that it is better to encourage aggressive private towing — instead of having anyone pay for public parking at any time.

This is unfortunate, since there is a much better parking management alternative that:

  • Gives visitors to downtown more choice in how long they shop
  • Costs taxpayers less to enforce than enforcing free 2-hour parking
  • Prevents all-day Park & Ride Parking to UNC in town lots
  • Makes it possible to find a lot with many open spaces online or by smartphone
  • Makes it more likely that visitors to downtown find a space easily
  • Reduces cruising for parking which leads to increased congestion and emissions downtown
  • Generates potential revenue for improvements that expand non-auto access to downtown
  • Helps generate revenue for businesses with parking when their business is closed

The alternative I am referring to is called Performance Parking Pricing.

Performance Parking Pricing – How It Works

Performance Parking Pricing starts with the following three principles:

  • The ideal utilization of any group of parking spaces is 80-85% full and 15-20% empty, because this leaves enough spaces to help anyone entering a parking lot, parking deck, or on-street row of spaces to quickly find a space and START SPENDING MONEY at local businesses instead of cruising around looking for a space.
  • You set the price per hour to the lowest price you can charge, INCLUDING FREE — and still have 15-20% of spaces open.
  • If a block of parking spaces is consistently more than 80-85% full in a given time period, you RAISE the hourly price for that time period.  If the block of spaces are consistently less than 80-85% full, you LOWER the hourly price for that time period.

Technology has advanced to make monitoring the number of free spaces in real time quite inexpensive, and text-enabled mobile phones, smartphones, and on-street kiosks make it easy to use.


Benefits of Performance Parking Pricing: For Shoppers

There are many benefits that Performance Parking Pricing has over trying to enforce 2-hour limits on free parking spaces.  Imagine you’ve come to downtown Carrboro to do some shopping and have parked in a public lot.  You shop for about 1.5 hours, and then run into a friend you haven’t seen in a while.  They ask you to get lunch at one of downtown’s sit-down restaurants.  “Sorry, I can’t- I’m going to get towed in 30 minutes unless I move my car.” With a smartphone or single text message, you could extend your parking downtown by one hour and not have to walk back to your car to do so.  You get to enjoy lunch with your friend. And a restaurant gets another customer.

Benefits of Performance Parking Pricing: Customer Turnover for Businesses

With the coming pricing of Chapel Hill Transit Park & Ride lots, town officials are correct to be concerned that downtown public parking lots will be used by commuters to the UNC campus.  Maximum parking time limits during class hours on weekdays can significantly deter park/ride activity, but fewer parking attendants can be deployed since the pricing encourages people to watch their time, and smart sensors can alert parking staff to violators so that tickets can be issued quickly.

Benefits of Performance Parking Pricing: Costs to Taxpayers

Enforcement costs money. A decision to enforce parking rules without adding revenue either adds cost to town budgets, or redirects employees who have other duties at present.  I’m grateful that crime is much less common in Carrboro than other communities. But do we want to take police away from more important duties to enforce two-hour time limits?  If not, the town will likely need to hire new staff.  Mayor Chilton was quoted in a recent WCHL story saying:

“if you mess up so bad that you get a parking ticket in the Town of Carrboro, there is nothing that I can do to help you.”

This suggests that current parking enforcement in Carrboro is somewhere between non-existent and very lax.  I personally do not think I have seen a single parking ticket on a windshield in the twelve years I have lived here.  Inconsistency in enforcement of any rule tends to lead to non-compliance, which means when enforcement begins, more people will be surprised to get ticketed or towed, which means more people will have bad experiences and unmet expectations about visiting downtown. Vigorous enforcement will be needed to break habits and that will not be free to the town budget.

Implementing a parking system like this, of course, also has costs- but pricing brings REVENUE to recoup the cost of the system, and after that point has been passed, the system can generate revenue for the town to improve access to downtown by means other than the private automobile.

Benefits of Performance Parking Pricing: Much Better Than Encouraging Towing

There are lots of reasons to prefer parking pricing over towing. Here are just a few:

  • Outsourcing enforcement to the private sector. The Town can use its regulations to promote turnover in public lots by towing vehicles, but any revenue generated by motorists who violate town rules winds up going to tow companies and not the Town.  With the Town managing pricing, violation fines can be put to public purposes, such as running buses later in the evening on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, making it easier to get downtown without a car in the first place.
  • Towing is generally much more expensive than a parking ticket to a shopper who violates the rules. Chapel Hill has recent experience with some of the towing firms that are likely to “serve” downtown Carrboro that may be instructive, with tow fees reaching up to $250! We don’t want people to monopolize public parking downtown and prevent it from turning over for new customers, and enforcement should send them a signal that they should behave differently.  But a parking ticket is a much better mechanism than towing, and can get the point across without gouging.  There’s a big difference between a $20 ticket and your car is where you left it and a $250 tow fee and you have no idea where your vehicle is, and now you have to pay a cab to take you to a remote lot. Who’s more likely to return to downtown Carrboro to shop: the guy who drove home as planned and mailed in a $20 check to Town Hall, or the guy who had to find his car in the woods at 1 a.m. and fork over $200 cash, after the cab that drove him out to somewhere on NC 54 between here and Graham already left?

Benefits of Performance Parking Pricing: Give Local Businesses a Revenue Opportunity

The Daniel Building on West Weaver Street has a series of businesses that are almost all closed at night, and they have several parking spaces.  Their sign discourages people from parking there who are not visiting those businesses.  That’s their right and this is important during the day for Modern Fossil and others in the building, but generally not at night.  If we had a town-wide parking system, the owners of The Daniel Building spaces could add some or all of their spaces to the Performance Parking Pricing pool, and generate revenue from their idle spaces at night, while also expanding the parking supply for late-evening downtown visitors patronizing Open Eye, Steel String, and Tyler’s.

Benefits of Performance Parking Pricing: Real-Time Parking Information

One of the most frustrating recurring parking problems I face in Carrboro is trying to park somewhere near Carrburritos at dinner time.  You drive over there, and find that the four spots at Carrburritos are full.  So you drive into the Rosemary Lot across the street from BowBarr, and you see a space!  Just as you’re about to pull in, you realize it’s the one wheelchair accessible space in the lot and you turn around and drive out.  As you exit, you pass someone with a hopeful look driving in, who not only saw a space, but sees you leaving, which means they think you vacated the space! Their hopes are similarly dashed moments later, and your hunt for parking continues, as your car continues to emit emissions and add congestion to the street grid.

Among some of the other benefits listed here, a Performance Parking Pricing system would by definition keep track of which lots in the system had spaces available, in REAL TIME.  Many cities have data like this these days using systems like the ParkMe web and smartphone app.

Imagine driving to downtown Carrboro with a map like this that someone in the passenger seat could use as you drove there:

You’d never hunt for parking again because you’d know exactly where to go.

Benefits of Performance Parking Pricing: THERE WILL STILL BE FREE PARKING DOWNTOWN A GOOD DEAL OF THE TIME

Before completely moving on from the map above, notice the price for less than 1.5 hours in Santa Monica: FREE. There are plenty of days and times every week in downtown Carrboro where current lots are not 80% full even at zero cost and (let’s be honest here) pretty much zero enforcement. While adding pricing to high-demand locations at peak times will help fill under-used lots, under a Performance Parking Pricing strategy, lots that remain below 80% occupied at $0/hour stay priced at $0/hour.  Until they go above 80% occupied, when it becomes difficult to guarantee an empty space to the next visitor, they would remain FREE.

Performance Parking Pricing vs More Enforcement of Time-Limited Free Parking: Summary

I recognize that for many people and business owners, the idea of paying for parking in a place where it has always been free represents a big shift in thinking about downtown Carrboro.  But simply stating “we’re not ready to charge for parking” and saying we’re going to ramp up enforcement on two-hour parking limits doesn’t seem to do the two things that I think would bring merchants the most steady stream of customers, which are:

  • making the process of finding parking EASIER for customers at high-demand times
  • establishing a public policy that supports turnover of spaces for commerce

Returning to my Carrburritos example, I’m there enough to know that most people eating there are not staying longer than 1 to 1.5 hours.  Even under strict enforcement of a 2-hour limit, all the challenges at the Rosemary Lot I described will almost certainly persist. The 2008 parking study also found that only about 20% of those parking downtown were staying longer than three hours. How many spaces can we really enforce to turnover if most people leave in under two hours anyhow?  What if the real gain in spaces for businesses occurs by converting 60 minute downtown visits to 30-minute ones? Making the first 30 minutes free and the time after that paid? The first 60 minutes free? If either of these are true, then enforcing a two-hour limit will be a big waste of time.

What if the optimum time for people to stay downtown from a commerce point of view is a little over two hours?  Now the scenario where someone comes downtown to visit one store and then decides to stay longer and get a meal can still get cut short by needing to go move their car, and a local restaurant just lost a customer.  Maybe that’s why Santa Monica has their pricing set the way they do?  Who knows.  Maybe we should ask Town staff to talk to Santa Monica staff.

What I fear an enforcement-only approach means is that a commitment to free parking at all costs is just a guess at what will generate greater parking availability for businesses, and that it will be a costly one in terms of town funds, with no guarantee of actually making more parking available for customers.  Beyond the financial aspect, it also looks like a commitment to continued extra cruising in and out of the Rosemary Lot when Carrburritos is slammed, and the same at the Century Center Lot on Thursday evenings when Weaver Street Market has an event. For a community that prides itself on accolades from the Sierra Club and similar organizations, it’s a commitment to extra greenhouse gas emissions that come from that extra cruising for parking. It’s a commitment to more traffic and congestion than necessary, and more time for people who WANT to spend money at downtown businesses to wait until they get to make a transaction while they hunt for spaces.  Oh, and if they decide they want to stay longer and shop or dine for more than 120 minutes- sorry, they can’t make that choice legally without walking back to a lot and moving their car.

If simply “more enforcement” of two-hour limits is the answer of an alternative policy to pricing, then the Town should at least be clear about how much the Town budget and taxes might increase to pay for this additional enforcement, or detail which other activities by existing town staff in specific departments will be curtailed to redirect their energies towards parking enforcement.

Finally, there should be a clear metric to measure “success” in a greater-enforcement-but-still-free-public-parking environment downtown that doesn’t involve the number of cars ticketed or towed. If the goal is to have a greater number of spaces available at all times for customers patronizing downtown Carrboro businesses, then that’s what we should count.  If anyone can think of a cheap, accurate, statistically viable way to do this without sensors, let me know.