The Arts and Crafts Festival in Downtown Syracuse gives the streets over to people on foot and provides a purpose to our walks.

The Walk

July 31, 2023

Walkability is one of those terms that continually comes up in planning and development circles. Real estate websites champion the Walk Scores of different apartments and houses. Comprehensive plans highlight the desire of younger generations to live in walkable neighborhoods. But what does walkability mean?

In one of my earlier pieces on the holiday season, I highlighted the work of Jeff Speck, author of Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time, who identifies four keys to making a city walkable:

Provide a proper reason to walk
Make the walk feel safe
Make the walk comfortable
Create an interesting walk

When we look across the City of Syracuse, we find islands of walkability; James St in Eastwood, Grant Blvd and N Salina St on the Northside, Westcott St on the Eastside. The prime example of this is Downtown Syracuse. As the central hub of the region, the neighborhood has a Walk Score of 93, achieving the title of “Walker’s Paradise.” While this is evident to anyone who spends time downtown, walking to and from Downtown to nearby neighborhoods is a different story.

Railroad bridges, highway overpasses, and overbuilt stroads (a term coined by Strong Towns to describe a thoroughfare that attempts to serve the purpose of a road and street while failing to do both) surround Downtown, cutting it off from close in neighborhoods. Poor sidewalk quality, underused lots, car storage, and wide intersections continue to break up what should be an easy walk.

Most people, if given the right conditions, would be happy to go for a two-mile walk, roughly30 to 45 minutes. In larger cities, due to their interesting environments, frequent shops and restaurants, and quality pedestrian infrastructure, a two-mile walk goes by without thinking. When you walk under highways and next to parking lots, two-miles can seem like a never ending distance. Walking has also been continually associated with good health, mindfulness, and connection with your surroundings, as noted in a recent New York Times opinion piece. Nick Offerman, of Parks and Recreation, has even highlighted its personal values to him in a recent podcast episode and in his latest book.

For Downtown Syracuse to continue to grow and for the central, nearby neighborhoods to begin to thrive, improving these connections is vital. To demonstrate this, we’ll take a look at walks to key destinations within two-miles of Clinton Square in Downtown Syracuse. We will look at what the City is doing right, where improvements can be made, and envision some potential futures these corridors may have in store. As Syracuse looks to add density and improve our housing stock, these central neighborhoods will become increasingly important.

If we can improve connections within two-miles of our City’s center, we can rethink how these inner neighborhoods function and how they connect to one another. Gone will be the need for car storage, as people will easily be able to walk or bike to most of their daily needs. Most trips in America, especially beyond our commutes to work, are already under 3 miles. If we can make those miles attractive and pleasant to walk, people of all ages gain the freedom to explore their communities and understand neighboring ones in ways they don’t quite get to from a windshield perspective.

This will be an ongoing project to document these walks. And we begin with the walk:

To Tipperary Hill
To the Ballpark
To Middle Ages (coming soon)
To Syracuse Stage (coming soon)

Lessons from the North

June 21, 2023

One of the most common phrases I hear about why we can’t make Syracuse a more pedestrian and bike friendly city is the concern about winter. “It's too cold for people to be outside on a bike or to walk.” “What about the snow?” “Plows will struggle if you do that.” “People are only outside for 3 months out of the year.”

I’d like to report that all of these concerns are overblown, if not just a straight up lie. Yes, cold weather and snow pose challenges to all infrastructure, but we have far fewer bad days than people like to admit. It doesn’t snow every single day for six months straight. Very few days are so cold you hide away inside all day. I’ve written about different ideas for how we can embrace winter in the past (here, here, here, and here). But Syracuse is not the only northern city in the US, and there is much we can learn from some.

In May, I was finally able to take a trip to Minneapolis, a city that has become increasingly prevalent in urban planning circles, especially in terms of bike infrastructure. Even on a brief trip, there was a lot to learn just from walking the streets.

Space for Bikes

“People won’t bike when it's cold,” Well, someone should tell the residents of Minneapolis that fact. The city gets far colder than Syracuse during the winter, yet has 8 times the share of people riding bikes to work (4% vs 0.5% in 2019). If you factor in other types of trips (daily errands, visiting friends, recreational), bike riding numbers would go even higher. It's not the cold that keeps people from biking, it's the lack of safe infrastructure that is maintained throughout the year.

In 2018, Minneapolis was ranked as the 4th best bike city in America by Bicycle Magazine. While the article criticizes the city for its past focus on recreational trails while forgetting about the day-to-day needs of cyclists in its urban spaces, it notes that in 2016 the city implemented a new complete streets policy. All road reconstruction projects now must prioritize walking, cycling, transit, and cars, in that order. This is the same approach several European countries take, which has resulted in far higher rates of bike ridership and transit usage than what is found in the US.

Raised bike lane

Pocket turn

Shared use path

As of 2023, Minneapolis has over 100 miles of off-road trails and bikeways, 98 miles of bike lanes, and 16 miles of protected on-street lanes. These facilities aren’t just available during the summer months, but are kept care of throughout the year. In fact, many residents have noticed the protected lanes and trails being cleared before the roads. One of the reasons for this - no parked cars getting in the way.

As you walk around the city, you find the desire to provide truly separate facilities for bikes. Raised bike lanes can be found throughout Downtown Minneapolis, and off-street trails and shared use paths spread out across the city. This is by design. Off-road shared-use paths are the preferred infrastructure throughout the city, while raised lanes are opted for wherever there is not room for a shared-use path, or it is deemed undesirable. When bikes and cars do mix at intersections, clear markings help guide people on bikes in designated spaces, including pocket turn lanes. These turn lanes help riders wait to turn in a safe, protected space away from traffic.

Even further separation occurs when you look to cross busier roadways. The Martin Olav Sabo Bridge was the first cable-stayed bridge in Minnesota and it is dedicated solely to people on bikes and on foot. While it might be the most impressive shared-use bridge I saw, it was not the only one. Bridges cross roadways and waterways throughout the city, allowing you to travel with limited interaction with cars often.

While Syracuse is making progress on some of these fronts, its network is still inconsistent and very few facilities truly separate riders from traffic. The closest experience to these paths and trails in the Syracuse area are the Creekwalk and the Loop the Lake trail. While we are working to improve connections to these trails to make them easier to use for commuting instead of just recreational purposes, key connection points often remain stubbornly blocked during the summer months due to festivals and concerts. Until we prioritize these connections, like Minneapolis has, commuting by bike will remain a less desirable and less safe alternative.

Bike locker at light rail station

Bike parking outside Target Field

One thing Syracuse has not made a lot of progress on is providing secure bike parking facilities. In Minneapolis, bike parking in the commercial centers is seemingly everywhere. Just look outside Target Field, where the Minnesota Twins play, and you’ll find dozens and dozens of bikes locked up by fans during the game. Meanwhile, NBT Bank Stadium, home of the Syracuse Mets, currently suffers from a lack of bike racks, or really any easy connections for individuals outside a car. Not only does Minneapolis have a plethora of traditional staple racks, but bike lockers can be found in many key locations. These lockers are found throughout Downtown Minneapolis and at most light rail stations in the region. For less than $50 a year, residents can use the lockers as they need, creating a seamless and safe transition between riding a bike and transit. Bike parking is often overlooked in our transportation systems, while we obsess over storage for our cars. To get people on their bikes, they need to feel safe about where they leave them at the end of their rides.

Building for Transit

Beyond riding bikes and walking, transit access in Minneapolis can teach us quite a bit. While Minneapolis is denser than Syracuse at this time (7,962 people/square mile vs 5,930 people/square mile), much of our street networks were built out around the same time when both cities had higher populations and higher densities. One difference between the cities is that Minneapolis refocused itself around transit access long before Syracuse has started to do the same.

Nicollet Mall

Bus shelter on the Nicollet Mall

In the 1960s, Minneapolis opened the country’s first transitway, Nicollet Mall, which closed the street to private vehicles while opening it to high quality transit and pedestrian space. The mall was most recently renovated in 2017 to provide more space for people and added greenery and updated lighting, making it a more pleasant experience. Along the transitway, and at many bus facilities across the city, large shelters are provided with detailed digital countdown boards, so it's easy to tell when to expect the bus you need.

Syracuse is getting its first bus rapid transit (BRT) lines in the coming years, and would do well to learn from the Nicollet Mall. Prioritize people and buses. Exclude cars when necessary. Provide up to date information to people as they wait. Provide ample space for people to wait to better ensure comfort.

Being a larger city than Syracuse, Minneapolis has also made key investments in light rail, which first came into service in 2001. What makes the Minneapolis light rail, known as the Metro Blue and Green lines, different from other rail transit networks I have ridden on across the US, is its focus on connecting population centers. Unlike Denver’s rail lines, which were pushed to the edges of communities and are surrounded by parking lots, Minneapolis has instituted transit oriented development (TOD) and transit improvement zones within a half mile of all stations. These policies promote denser development patterns with less space for car storage. The city has also secured grants in recent years to study potential improvements surrounding stations and identify funding opportunities for developers to help promote denser development patterns.

Metro Blue Line running through Downtown Minneapolis.

Syracuse is looking to implement some forms of transit oriented development through ReZone Syracuse, but many of those policies are tied to the implementation of BRT. Developers need to know where BRT stations will be as the immediate blocks will be the focus of TOD style projects. Concentrating development on top of high quality transit lines, along with reducing and adequately pricing car storage, will help promote this more sustainable growth pattern.

On a brief side note about dense development and access, the stadiums for Minneapolis’ major league teams are all integrated into the fabric of the city. Each one is accessible via transit (rail and bus), the bike network, and pedestrian infrastructure (both sidewalks and skyways). Most of the stadiums are surrounded by their neighborhoods, with bars and restaurants, apartments and offices all within a short walking distance. This may not be the most important piece of infrastructure in a city, but emphasizing these connections instead of sitting in a sea of car storage helps integrate the team and its fans into the community. I’ve continually advocated for Syracuse to do the same.

Public Spaces in All Seasons

While density, along with proper transportation infrastructure, is key to a thriving city, providing excellent public spaces helps the residents get out of their homes and connect with one another. This is not just about being outside in summer months, but providing spaces for year round use.

One way that Minneapolis has addressed this need is through their extensive network of skyways. In fact it is the world’s largest network of interconnected pedestrian bridges. First opening in 1962, the skyways have over 80 blocks through Downtown Minneapolis, allowing people to walk through dozens of buildings and past interior shopping and dining options without stepping foot outside. During the Minnesota winters, having a heated pathway through the city can be vital.

Skyway bridges

Skyway map

But I bring up the skyways not as a, “we should 100% build this in Syracuse,” type of idea. While the skyways help shield people from harsh weather, they also dampen street life, which is something the city has been concerned about since the very beginning. Instead, I see this as an idea that can be improved upon. Being able to experience the heart of the city without needing to bundle up every time you need to go somewhere is an enjoyable experience, but it needs to be grounded back to the street. The existing skyways in Minneapolis do not always have obvious entrances and exits. Often you feel like you are intruding on someone else’s space, which in some ways you are. And the bridges can be closed at the will of the building owners, potentially blocking key routes when you need them most.

Syracuse’s only two skyways currently connect offices to parking garages. This is an extremely limited use and does nothing to truly benefit the city. If northern cities want to embrace skyways as a way to improve mobility during the winter months, they must be publicly controlled and clearly marked. Dedicated entrances that open onto the sidewalk, and ideally lead directly to destinations throughout the downtown core.

Another option, which I’ve discussed in a previous piece, is utilizing STOA, or covered walkways. These are most famously found in older Italian and Spanish cities to help shade residents from the sun, but could easily be repurposed to cover us from rain and snow. While there’s no heating in these structures, blocking some of the elements that make walking uncomfortable while keeping us on street level might be enough to convince some to venture out during poor weather.

Rooftop bar at the Brit (photo by Tyler Henderson)

A more tried and true place to gather is the local pub. While Syracuse has finally opened its first rooftop bar, Minneapolis has many. People often shoot down the idea of a rooftop bar because of the colder winter months, yet most of the year we experience pleasant weather, even during the winter. One rooftop bar in Minneapolis, at the Brit, features an entire bowling green, acting as a second story lawn for playing games. We might not need something quite as large as this space, but recognizing that we deserve rooftop access in our downtown core is not up for debate.

Public Art

The final piece I will touch on in this piece is the importance of public art. Syracuse has been making strides towards improving the quality and number of public art pieces across the city, but we have a ways to go before we begin to match Minneapolis. Just outside Downtown Minneapolis sits a world famous sculpture garden that was busy even on a dreary day. The sculptures are larger than life, and a few were even interactive.

Even on the walk to the garden, and throughout the city, you stumble upon large scale murals highlighting famous residents or landscapes. These pieces are seen as preserving the history of the city and highlighting what they are proud of. Syracuse has begun down this path more vigorously in recent years, with new murals going up in each neighborhood. We should continue this process and encourage even more.

The big takeaway from this experience is that many of the things Minneapolis has achieved in terms of public infrastructure are not that far out of reach for cities like Syracuse. If anything, they are a model for what we can achieve in colder climates. We may not have the financial strength or cache of a larger city, yet, but we can prioritize investments that make some of these goals more achievable.

We Need a Housing Compact

May 10, 2023

New York State, along with states around the country, is suffering from a housing crisis. When most people hear this, they immediately think of the high housing costs in New York City and the surrounding areas, where rents are well over $3,000 per month, home ownership is out of reach for many, and recent reports indicate roughly half of residents can not comfortably afford their current living arrangements. But this should not overshadow the very real housing crises experienced across Upstate New York as well. Highly restrictive zoning policies have segregated our communities, both racially and economically. High levels of abandoned properties and disinvestment have left large portions of our housing stock in poor conditions, increasing the demand and costs for the quality housing that remains. These are issues that must be addressed and we must admit that our current land use and zoning structures have failed to do so. This is why I support Governor Hochul’s Housing Compact, which was regrettably removed from the State’s 2023-2024 budget.

Before we jump into why I believe the Compact is needed, and what we might do to improve upon it, I think its important to first run through what it is.

The aim of the Housing Compact is to build at least 800,000 housing units over the next ten years. This is in response to the State creating over 1.2 million jobs this past decade, but only building 400,000 units of housing. As we all learn in high school economics classes, when demand rises but the supply does not meet that demand, prices go up. Simply put, all localities would be required to build a certain amount of housing every three years - 1 percent growth Upstate and 3 percent growth Downstate. So if you’re in a small village with only 300 units of housing currently, you would need to allow for at least 3 housing units to be built. For the City of Syracuse, the target would be roughly 680 units.

If a municipality does not meet their targets, they can get credit for updating their zoning to allow denser housing development. If a municipality continues to miss their targets, or does not put in effort to make it easier to build, the State would be allowed to override the local zoning and approve projects.

Additionally, the State would emphasize transit oriented development (TOD) near all train stations operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). TOD would allow for more residents to live car free with easy access to high quality transit in our State’s primary economic center. While this doesn’t apply Upstate, cities and regions should be taking similar approaches around stations with frequent service.

As you can imagine, and as you have probably heard, many people are not happy with the idea of the State overriding their local zoning laws. They’ll bring up discussions of “community character,” “local control,” or “concerns of overcrowded schools.” What it truly boils down to is concerns over home values and who lives in their community.

Elected leaders in the State legislature proposed utilizing incentives to encourage housing construction instead of penalizing localities. On its face, this seems like a fair compromise, but it would only lead to further segregation. Wealthy communities do not need financial incentives and will decide against adding housing, while cash strapped municipalities, primarily cities and older inner ring suburbs, will forge ahead with housing plans. While the financial incentives will help those communities, the wealthy communities will continue to shrug off their responsibilities to their regions.

Overall, the Compact would go a long way towards addressing the housing crises impacting our communities. Creating more housing where it is desperately needed. Providing housing opportunities in all communities to allow for greater access to resources. Improving our rapidly deteriorating housing stock Upstate. But I believe there are a few things we can do to improve upon it.

Starting Downstate, and really anywhere that touches MTA infrastructure. Currently large parking lots and garages surround many of the suburban MetroNorth and Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) stations. This is land that is owned by the State and its time for the State to get back into the business of building housing in a big way. Each of these lots is a prime opportunity for affordable housing and related public services. Providing subsidized parking to commuters should not come at the expense of pushing housing further away from quality transit.

These policies can and should be emulated across the State as other transit agencies introduce bus rapid transit (BRT) or have rail infrastructure of their own. Publicly owned lots and garages should be targeted for housing construction whenever possible.

Moving to statewide policies, we should follow the lead of California and band single family zoning statewide. California’s Senate Bill 9 allows for up to four units of housing to be built on every residential lot across the state. While I believe we should follow this same policy, even allowing two-family homes on every lot would mark a dramatic improvement. This goes far beyond just allowing for auxiliary dwelling units (ADUs), essentially a granny flat, on properties. While building ADUs should be allowed, building multi-family housing is far less expensive per unit and more flexible than a single family homes with an ADU. This can be simplified in even further by following creating a set of housing designs that are universally approved across the State, allowing for builders to streamline their approval processes. Spokane, Washington has moved forward with a similar set of policies hoping to encourage faster adoption of denser housing models and cut down on bureaucratic costs, both in time and money.

Additionally, the State should look for ways to promote flexibility in zoning. Storefronts in residential neighborhoods, corner shops, neighborhood bars and restaurants, all used to be common features of residential neighborhoods - even those primarily made up of single family homes. Creating a statewide policy that allows certain commercial or office uses to develop in these neighborhoods would help provide local amenities, reduce car trips, and reduce the barrier of entry for entrepreneurs.

Related to each of these points, the State must promote infill development over further expansion. There is a fear that pushing municipalities to provide more housing will push encourage the redevelopment of rural land into subdivisions, or see the removal of our precious forested lands. These are areas we must preserve. One option is dictating that large portions of the development in metropolitan regions must occur in urbanized areas, as defined by the US Census Bureau, until certain density thresholds are met. By emphasizing infill development and increasing density, transit, walkability and safe cycling infrastructure can be invested in. Once a density threshold is met, new boundaries can be discussed based on the next three year housing target. This would function similarly to Portland, Oregon’s urban growth boundary, but with defined triggers to when the boundary is allowed to grow. I’ve already explored where housing in the Syracuse area should be targeted in my Growth in CNY series.

These policy ideas will not address all of the issues facing us, but they can go a long way towards increasing our housing stock, improving the living conditions across the State, reducing our greenhouse gas emissions through denser development, and promoting more integrated communities through removing local barriers. I know communities do not like losing power, but these same communities have chosen to build barriers over the last 70 years instead of bridges. New York State is struggling to stay competitive and its single biggest obstacle is providing affordable, quality housing. Its time we make this a priority and ensure every community is doing its part.

Bus Rapid Transit: A Response

April 13, 2023

Public transit is at a precarious moment in time with ridership still significantly below pre-pandemic levels, a significant driver shortage, and the approaching depletion of federal funds meant to shore up operating budgets. While some newspapers are looking for answers to how transit agencies might approach solving these issues (funding more frequent service, reducing fares, reforming construction procedures), others, including my hometown paper, have chosen to openly question one of the first significant investments in transit in my lifetime.

On April 6, 2023, the largest news outlet in Syracuse published an article titled, “Centro has millions of dollars and a new idea. Will anyone ride it?” The article aims to inform readers of the upcoming implementation of bus rapid transit (BRT) but instead frames the investment as a boondoggle that is unlikely to attract riders and does not provide service to the areas that truly need it. Well, as you can imagine, it sparked a lot of conversation amongst advocates and planners who see BRT for what it truly is: a major step in the right direction. So let us look at some of the issues raised in the report, what they got wrong, what they oversimplified, and how we should be looking at this investment.

First, let’s begin with a key fact that the report chose to omit - the BRT plan currently moving forward is based on an extensive study completed by the SMTC in 2018 (SMART 1). This is not a new scheme, but instead a thoroughly researched plan based on best practices seen in cities across the world, including in nearby cities such as Albany and Cleveland. The plan identified the two routes, which form an X across the city due to the high demand of ridership already seen along those corridors. They connect the three largest employment centers within the region (Downtown Syracuse, Destiny USA, and University Hill), some of the densest neighborhoods in the city, along with four large college campuses (Syracuse University, SUNY ESF, SUNY Upstate, SUNY OCC) and a fifth satellite campus (SUNY Oswego’s metro campus in Downtown Syracuse). As the vast majority of City residents commute within the City, not just for work but for their daily needs, improving access to these key destinations is vital. BRT will become the backbone of the transit system.

Now the article does bring up the valid concern of individuals who must reach far flung suburban jobs or medical appointments. Over the past 70 years, Onondaga County has promoted suburban sprawl through zoning and land use policies that have resulted in a decentralization of services and jobs. Shopping centers, office parks, and medical campuses now sit on the fringes of our county, making themselves difficult to reach for anyone who does not own a car. This form of development also makes transit difficult as every mile added to a route means the frequency of that service will decline. This is why many routes in our region are lucky if they have a bus more than once an hour. Spreading service thin to serve a handful of individuals or workplaces is not a sustainable model for mass transit. This has led to difficult decisions in the past. In 2017, the Town of DeWitt built a new public library, moving away from its long time location in Shoppingtown Mall as that property was slowly abandoned all together. The library’s new location is roughly a mile away from an existing bus route. Instead of the Town working with Centro to identify a location along existing routes, the library was built and then service was demanded. Centro, understanding that this additional mile would throw off the rest of that route’s service, made the difficult decision not to serve the library. This same story could be written for many employers who choose to be located in suburban communities but rely on workers from the City who in turn rely on Centro.

Riders are right to voice their frustration with old routes that no longer make sense, or routes that result in longer trips than needed. Central Current, a start-up news outlet, wrote a tremendous series on rider experiences that reflect these issues, but also showcase what the service means to them. There are models of service that can help fill these gaps experienced by a more suburban oriented growth pattern. The individuals quoted in the article who provide van and shuttle services to specific employment centers are following more realistic models for how to serve these locations. Sending a 40 or 60 ft bus to carry one or two people just does not work. This is why Centro is also exploring the use of vans for on-call services in more suburban locations, something mentioned in passing in the article but given no explanation. LA Metro, RTS in Rochester, and CDTA in Albany have all begun experimenting with similar services to supplement their fixed route systems. Riders can either travel door to door within specific zones, or from a fixed route stop to their final destination, calling a van with an app similar to Uber. These are not replacements for fixed route services, but instead help boost flexibility in areas that are not conducive to mass transit services.

So what should we be looking for in a BRT system?

As noted in the SMART 1 report, BRT in Syracuse will run mostly in mixed traffic, as Syracuse does not experience much congestion. This may need to be reevaluated in the future if development spurred by the Micron development leads to the job growth anticipated, but it holds true today. Stops will be spaced out further, closer to 1/3 or 1/2 mile apart, allowing buses to move faster between each instead of stopping nearly every block. Buses arriving every 15 minutes makes traveling predictable and easy to use. This is one of the reasons people prefer subways and streetcars as they feel more predictable, and often arrive far more frequently than buses do.

The article notes, “The new bus rapid transit lines won’t have … raised station platforms …,” and later continues, “Centro could used the $35 million to build infrastructure for the bus lines, including new curb cuts and bigger bus shelters that may be equipped with kiosks of customers to pay their fares in advance.” There’s a lot in those two sentences, but this is where we do need Centro to step up - the stations. While BRT will result in shorter wait times overall, providing comfortable spaces for riders to wait is still important. It shouldn’t just be a slightly larger bus shelter. Raised platforms would speed up boardings by reducing the number of times buses must “kneel” to allow individuals with reduced mobility to board. Instead, those same individuals can easily walk or roll across the platform and onto the bus. Stations should also have kiosks for fare payment along with real-time countdown clocks to inform riders of when the next bus is expected. These simple amenities both help speed up boarding and provide peace of mind to those waiting.

A standard bus shelter in Downtown Syracuse. BRT stations must be more robust and contain more amenities as a way to improve its service quality.

One note on the pre-pay kiosks and payments in general, we should also be encouraging the faster deployment of tap systems throughout our transit services. Utilizing a tap system (either through using a credit card, phone, or prepaid transit card) helps simplify the process of using transit. No longer must you have exact change or a pre-purchased transit pass. It will allow casual riders to take a trip when they see a bus coming without having to plan ahead, especially as more and more of life goes cashless.

The last piece of the equation I must mention, and that I have covered more thoroughly in my Growth in CNY series, is the need to develop around the stations. Encouraging dense development, both residential and commercial, will help promote the use of the system. The BRT planned for Syracuse already has ridership levels to sustain it, but to see growth we must build for growth. This goes for future extensions as well. In the Salt City has already written about what future BRT expansions may look like, with some pretty excellent maps to go along with it. But this goes for developments along all major transit corridors in our region. Building more sprawl will only make it more difficult to serve our region successfully with transit. Dense nodes of activity (town centers, villages, urban cores) lend themselves to transit in a way our current development pattern does not. We must look at BRT as the backbone of the system, and it will only get stronger as we build denser along it.

To end this piece before I go on for too long, I just want to summarize my thoughts in this way: BRT in Syracuse will improve the lives of thousands of people and may even encourage others to take advantage of its services, even if it does not solve all of our transit issues. We should not let perfection be the enemy of good, scratch that, great.

Fixing Car Storage

March 30, 2023

One of the most common complaints people have when heading into their local downtown or any popular neighborhood is finding a place to store their car. They circle the block looking for an open spot, causing congestion in return. It’s not that open spots don’t exist, it’s that they either cost money or are more than a block or two away from their destination. Through film and television, we have been sold the fantasy that we should expect easy car storage at our destinations, always pulling up right out front. Over the last 70 plus years we have been building suburbia and retrofitting cities to continue this illusion by putting a sea of asphalt in front of our buildings. While this gives people the feeling that their car is nearby, it may actually be further away than if you used the garage three blocks away from a downtown restaurant. Now I don’t believe I can fix all of the car storage problems, but there are plenty of ways we can chip away at them while encouraging people to use other modes of transportation.

To start, I think it’s important for us to use the phrase “car storage” over “parking.” This may seem trivial, but when you hear the phrase “car storage” you start to understand that we have been subsidizing the storage of private property in our public spaces for decades. And that space is not free to build. Curb space could be used for other modes of transportation (bikes and buses) or for loading zones for local business, instead of forcing many delivery drivers to stop in the travel lane, blocking traffic. We have attempted to privatize some of this by requiring a minimum number of spaces at private developments, but that has only exacerbated the issue by spreading businesses and residents out further and encouraging more and more people to drive where they could previously walk or take transit. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at a few different approaches to fixing this storage issue and how they might all work together to improve how our cities function. And remember, these strategies can be used in our cities, villages, and towns.

Ending Minimums

To start this conversation off, we return to a topic I’ve mentioned time and time again throughout my blog - ending parking minimums.

As cars began to dominate our roadways, space to store them was scarce. To accommodate this increase in cars, cities turned to a new tool, zoning, to require new developments to provide off-street storage for cars. Much like many other aspects of zoning codes, these minimums come with the appearance of being based on scientific reasoning and study. In reality, they’re not based on much at all. If you scroll through municipal zoning codes online, you start to see very similar requirements for places that are very different from one another. You might even be surprised to learn that much of New York City is governed by parking minimums as well - even in a city where more than half of households do not own a car.

But let’s look at what parking minimums do. If you’re looking to build a small restaurant or bar, you might be required to build one parking space for every three seats. Well, three seats might only take up about 50 square feet, but the space to store that car takes up around 200 square feet. That space begins to add up to the point where the restaurant is now surrounded by a deep moat of asphalt for car storage. And it doesn’t come cheap - with the average cost to build a lot coming it around $5,000 to $10,000 per space. But let’s say you’re not building this restaurant from scratch. You’re looking to repurpose an older building in your neighborhood that would make a great spot for neighbors to walk to for dinner. Many older buildings don’t come with lots next door. You might need to look at tearing down a building to provide the required number of spaces for your customers, or hope to have a variance approved so you can provide fewer spaces or none at all. Both of these options add expense to a project and may impact whether a project is feasible or not. To get a sense of just how much parking is required, below is a table giving a snapshot of some of the requirements found around Onondaga County.

This does not mean car storage won’t exist, it just allows developers to build the amount they believe they need to be successful. We don’t have to look far for an example. Buffalo eliminated minimums in 2017. In the years since, nearly every development has built some car storage, with many building close to the number they would have been required to before this change. The upside is, if those developments choose to expand, they can now opt to build upon their lots without needing to provide additional spaces.

Beyond the costs and logistics of providing these spaces, it also reduces access to businesses for anyone outside of a car. Large lots push businesses and residences further and further apart, reducing the usefulness of transit and making it difficult to walk or bike. If you’ve ever walked through a parking lot on a hot summer day or on a freezing winter day with a harsh wind, you know just how unpleasant these spaces become. When looking at the images below, its easy to see which place is more pleasant to be in, yet our arbitrary rules prevent more of these places from existing.

With all of this in mind, it’s time for those of us who champion removing these minimums to emphasize what we gain instead of what is lost. We gain flexibility for businesses large and small. We gain affordability by reducing the costs of construction. We gain the ability to create more accessible places. In many ways, we gain freedom.

Dynamic Metered Spaces

Now that we have addressed off-street car storage requirements, we must look to our streets, beginning in our business districts.

Metered spaces across downtowns and in neighborhood business districts have prices that do not reflect their true value. Some spaces, near major destinations, popular restaurants and bars, are priced at the same level as spaces on the outskirts of their neighborhoods. For Syracuse, this is $2 per hour. While this is a deal in Hanover Square or Armory Square, what sense does this make near the highway viaducts several blocks away from any destination? Most people would understand that these spaces do not hold equal value and should be priced differently - and no, they should not be free.

Donald Shoup, the person who has truly brought car storage policy to the forefront in urban planning settings, has long advocated for a smarter approach to pricing our curbs. In 2014, he worked with San Francisco on a pilot program, SFPark, aimed at pricing the city’s streets to reflect the demand for space. Using cameras and sensors, the city tracked how much space one each block was being used to store cars at any one time. Pricing at the meters would change to reflect this usage, trying to find the price at which every block had one to two spots open at all times. Its important to note that San Francisco aimed to keep this program cost neutral, meaning they did not want drivers to spend more per hour than under the original pricing scheme. In more desirable places the price could be over $6 per hour while further out they could be as low as $0.50 per hour. At the end of the pilot, they measured less congestion on the study streets due to reduced circling for spots, and noted the average price per hour for each driver went down while the overall revenue went up, meaning there was an increase in turnover.

Other cities have instituted similar programs, including Seattle, WA and Calgary, Canada. These cities set their target occupancy rates a little differently and adjust their prices on different timelines, and even have different prices based on the time of day. One thing Syracuse should learn from some of these other cities is that we turn off our meters too early, at 6pm (although most of us know its before that) right when they begin to hit another demand peak for dinner at local restaurants. Keeping meters on until 8pm would help manage the demand better and encourage higher turnover in the most coveted locations.

Our curbs are too valuable to give away for nearly free, but we must recognize that not all curb space is valued the same. Programs like this prove that you can use the same amount of space to provide access to more and more people if it is managed well. Dynamic metered pricing can also be tied into benefit districts, which I will discuss later in this post.

Centralized Car Storage and Improved Garages

While it is important to manage our curbs well, there is still demand for longer term car storage for workers and residents in our business districts. At the same time, we cannot have surface lot after surface lot creating dead zones throughout. Instead, we need to look for opportunities to provide shared lots and structures in a more centralized way.

I will be the first to say that parking garages are less than ideal.They are far more difficult to redevelop in the future than surface lots, they cost far more per space ($24,000 - $34,000 per space), and are often less appealing to drivers due to the decreased visibility causing safety concerns. But, for now, they are a necessary evil that we must contend with and work to improve. Garages help to centralize car storage, freeing up other land for development. Not all garages are created equal. Below are multiple examples of garage throughout Downtown Syracuse, some doing a much better job of preserving the streetscape than others, including providing ground floor retail or office space.

Beyond the traditional garage, vertical car storage, often seen around New York City, provide a less expensive and less permanent option. According to a 2014 New York Times article, vertical car storage devices cost less than half (roughly $16,000 per space) than a conventional garage. While still more expensive than a surface lot, the value is created through freeing up additional land for development.

Employer Incentives

A final piece to car storage in our downtowns and business districts involves our employers. While more suburban office parks and commercial centers offer free car storage for all, many employers in downtowns and business districts provide permits for their employees to use designated lots. These are often purchased from the building, lot, or garage owner and are considered pre-tax benefits for employees. But what about employees who walk, bike, or take transit to work? In effect, those employees are losing out on a portion of their pay all because they choose not to drive to work, or perhaps they cannot afford to drive to work.

Instead, we should require employers to provide alternative transportation benefits to their employees. In practice, whatever funds were used to pay for car storage could instead be given to employees in the form of transit passes or a cash payout. New York City requires all employers with more than 20 full time employees to offer these types of passes, but similar programs exist in smaller cities as well, such as Hartford, Connecticut.

By allowing employees to choose which commuting option works best for them, without financially penalizing them (and yes this is a form of financial penalization), we begin to emphasize that all modes of transportation are equal instead of prioritizing the car.

Residential Permit Systems and Benefit Districts

Now moving to our residential neighborhoods. Car storage isn’t just a downtown issue. Urban neighborhoods, village centers, and anyone living near popular destinations often compete for spaces to store their vehicles in front of their homes. While no one should be guaranteed a piece of public land to store private property, helping improve access to people’s homes is a reasonable policy choice, within some restrictions.

Many cities have implemented residential permits with a wide range of rules, but often the prices are too low and management of the system is hit or miss. So here are a few things we should consider about permit programs to make sure we gain the most benefit from them:

Track curb usage on a regular basis - every couple of years

Only institute permit programs in neighborhoods that truly have a storage issue. Set the goal (maybe 70% of curb space used) and track it over multiple days to ensure the need is there.

Limit the number of permits provided per household

Providing more than two or three permits per household would quickly overrun whatever space is available

Institute an increased price for each additional permit beyond the first

The more space a household consumes, the more it should pay
This goes for larger vehicles as well - vehicles larger than a sedan or a compact SUV (think Chevy Trailblazer) should pay a higher price for a permit due to the additional space they consume

Utilize license plate readers instead of hang tags

Helps to cut down duplicated tags and improves efficiency in enforcement

Put the funds gained from the permit system back into the neighborhood

The last point is crucial. Using the funds collected from the neighborhood, either from permits or dynamic metered spaces, to reinvest in those specific neighborhoods help to build good will for the program as well as provided a consistent funding source for needed improvements. Sidewalks, bike lanes and bike racks, pedestrian lighting, street trees, all can be funded through what is known as a parking benefits district. Cities across the country have raised millions of dollars for neighborhood improvements through similar programs. Pittsburgh has used funds to improve public safety infrastructure in nightlife communities while Washington D.C. improved trash collection services. Neighborhoods should have a say in how their funds are used to improve their communities.

On a related note, and much to the anger of many college students, I believe permits to store student cars on university campuses are necessary. In my time in college, and in seeing many posts on social media since, students are often angry at having to pay an additional fee to store their car on campus after paying tens of thousands of dollars to attend classes there. This mentality ignores the thousands of students who do not have cars and should not be forced to subsidize those who do. College is one of the few times in life where cars really are optional in most American cities. Campuses are built to promote walkability and often run bus and shuttle services to off campus locations for free or very reduced prices. But that is all I will say on that topic as working with universities is a complex issue that deserves its own examination.

Moving Forward

Car storage is a tricky issue and we must be open to different solutions and act creatively. None of the ideas covered here will solve the problem alone, and they must be combined with other changes to our transportation network. We cannot think of these issues in a vacuum. Land use decisions, public transit networks, biking and walking facilities all factor in to how our public realm is used. The more we promote modes of transportation beyond private cars, the more space we can take back from car storage.