I agree, it is a joke that this “Big League City”, has a piss poor transportation system, worse than cities much smaller than us. Heck, Little Rock and Wichita and even Tulsa have much better public transportation. We can’t even get a reliable downtown circular going.

Regardless of reality the supposed “parking problem” there is a perception that parking is difficult and expensive. The difficulty is mainly because nobody really knows much about parking downtown. If the public was better educated, then the complaints would subside. Regarding the expense, I can understand not wanting to pay just so you can park for dinner near the restaurant…I don’t like doing that. The same goes for shopping. Nobody wants to pay $5 to shop 3 stores. If there where 20-30 stores, there would be no complaints. Would free parking help? Sure, but is only one component of the problem.

Retail needs density as well. Why do you think developers never plan more than one or two stores in a particular area? Retail thrives when other retail is nearby. There are stores that are destinations for some shoppers and some store that attract different other shoppers, when both type of retail are near each other, shoppers from one type of store will find their way into the other.

I hear many people say that there needs to be “rooftops” for retail to take off in Bricktown. I would disagree. Quail Springs became a shopping Mecca long before there was the residentail development that exists there now, as did many major shopping areas. It’s not rooftops that are hindering the growth of retail in DT.

Lastly, what I think is the major problem with retail in Bricktown is the expense of leasing space there. Why open a retail store in an area with sporadic shopping traffic, when you can get cheap rent in an area with a traffic count like Memorial Road? It’s simple economics. Until Bricktown property owners decide to ditch the greed, their buildings will be empty and the grown of the district will be stunted. Create the desire to retail in Bricktown, then use your building to make a profit, not the other way around.

Encouraging the development of surface parking lots into destination people want to visit and steering whatever subsidies that are currently spent on parking towards the overall improvement of the district is a far better strategy. Or how about considering improvements to the trolley network or even a new fixed rail streetcar so we can take advantage of the incredible amount of parking that already exists in downtown?

If we create a place where people want to be, then they will figure out how to get there and can decide for themselves if the cost of parking is worth it. And a destination that attracts people will attract retail in time – free parking or no free parking!