A parking mystery

 

2nd Avenue, looking north/east from the intersection at 12th Street

Here's a curious thing: a bunch of cars parked along both sides of the 1200 block of 2nd Avenue SE, an area that has a lot of vacant lots and empty buildings. There are more residences on the south side of the street, but they have alley parking behind their buildings. So who are all these people parking here?

A clue is behind us, where the blocked-off portion of 2nd Avenue dead ends into the back of the (relatively) new Physicians Clinic of Iowa building.

2nd Avenue, looking south/west from the intersection at 12th Street

I think that's a reasonable guess, because, reader, that's where I was going! And that's why I was expecting to park on 2nd Avenue (which eventually I did, farther down the block).

There's a lot of off-street parking around PCI, including both a surface lot and a fancy garage on the other side of 10th Street. Are they filled to capacity? Probably not. But I didn't even look. I wasn't planning to be long at the clinic, just to run in and drop off the results of some bloodwork. And I automatically rejected the rigamarole of the regular parking lots: driving in, finding a space, walking out, walking back in, finding my car, and driving out. It seemed easier to park on the street.

I parked farther down the street than I'd planned, but it was a pleasant day, and an easier walk down a quiet street than through a parking garage.

This seems to teach a lesson about parking infrastructure, although I confess I'm not sure what it is. There's an excess of parking in the MedQuarter, which we knew already, but if the garage (below) weren't there, more people would park on the street, right? Maybe once there's a critical mass of cars in the garage the street is the easier option. I prefer driving US30 towards Chicago than the interstates, but if the interstates weren't there US30 would be a hellstrip.

I'm welcome to park here, but, um, no thanks.

I think this is important, because parking garages are expensive to build, particularly if they're not going to be used to capacity, and surface parking lots may be the most wasteful way we use land. And yet, I don't know what lesson to draw from this partial insight.