“Parking is not a constitutional right,” the mayor of Bogotá, Columbia, told car-owning citizens of his third-world city a few years ago as he made them stop blocking sidewalks built for pedestrians.
That may be one reason Enrique Penalosa was a one-term mayor (1998-2001), but he did wonders for Bogotá and, last night in a fully-packed auditorium at Griffith University, I got to hear him talk about cars, parking, and what makes cities great.
His words, delivered with energy and passion, had particular force for me because I had just been reading squeals of protests about a sharp increase in fees for parking cars in our CBD (central business district).
“Brisbane parking prices are out of this world” according to a headline in the 7 February “City News,” the cover of which shows a concerned young woman holding car keys and pondering “why it costs you more to park in Brisbane than in New York.”
Inside, a story by Brooke Falvey says monthly parking fees have jumped 66 per cent and a reserved parking space in the CBD can cost “as much as $750 a month” while “long-term parking bays in downtown Manhattan” lease for $276 (US$250).
Falvey says the NY City Department of Transport provided that information and it appears that some parking lots in America’s largest city do have rates in that neighborhood, although most cost more.
By going to an Internet site that lists the prices and contact information for more than 700 commercial Manhattan purveyors of parking, www.bestparking.com, I found two parking lots offering rates lower than what a single line in the “City News” story lists as the lowest monthly rate in Brisbane, $180, or US$161.
One low-cost NY lot was at 10th Avenue and Harlem River Drive and the other was on 155th Street. Neither address means much to me, but, according to bestparking.com, as one moves toward “downtown Manhattan” the rates rise quickly toward Brisbane’s highest rate and above.
Even I, a lifelong avoider of the Big Apple, know that it would be hard to be more downtown in Manhattan (or is it uptown?) than at 120 E. 48th Street between Lexington Avenue and Park Avenue. A car park monthly lease there? US$1,200 or about $1,340 in AU money.
Picky, picky, you say? Well, perhaps, but the “City News,” seems a little too eager to build a case capable of stirring public outrage. Their coverage includes:
– a brief story in which the “Secure Parking general manager David Knight” comes off as evasive and surprised by negative reaction to the price hike;
– a note headed “The bicycle push continues,” about a new building that will have more spaces for bikes than cars;
– a quote from our mayor saying the hike is price gouging;
– and a bright red box offering the “City News” phone number and “Secure Parking’s” phone number with a suggestion to readers: “share your thoughts.”
This stoush was on my mind as I heard the former mayor of Bogotá express some astounding opinions about highways and sidewalks, democracy and equality, and the relative rights of cars and children.
I’ll tell you more about what Penalosa said in his Brisbane remarks in my next blog. I think some of you will be as uplifted by his views as I was.
Granted, I don’t work in the CBD, and I live in a close-in suburb near bike routes, a bus stop, and a train that can get me from my front door to Central Station in less than half an hour, but I’m thinking that maybe Brisbane CBD parking spaces should cost much, much more than they do.
Maybe I should call those numbers listed in the red box “City New” so thoughtfully provided.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Paula 02.09.08 at 3:14 am
third-world city? whatever. you gringos get so full of yourselves when you refer to other places as ‘third world’.
like texas is such a great place anyway.
Bob 02.09.08 at 2:54 pm
The former mayor of Bogota uses that term for his city. Sorry if I offended you. — Bob
Bob 02.11.08 at 10:52 am
After a “re-think:” Thanks, Paula. I take it you live in Bogota. Correct? Anyway, thanks for calling my attention to a term with negative connotations of which I was not aware. Now that I am, and I apologize to you and to anyone else who found the term offensive in my blog.
I intended no put-down, but according to a writer for Wikipedia, the term “third world,” along with “first world” and “second world,” has been used to broadly categorize nations according to social, political and economic issues, but is now “deprecated.” It may well be that, in the speech I heard, the term Enrique Penalosa used to describe Bogota was “developing,” not “third world.”
As I was writing “third world city” I had a niggling thought in the back of my consciousness: I don’t really know for sure what that term means, exactly.
Reminder to self: Pay attention to such thoughts. — Bob
Paula 02.11.08 at 10:47 pm
Thanks for your reply Bob. While it is true that technically ‘third world’ is a way to categorize nations in terms of their social and economic advancement, more often than not it is used by Americans in a demeaning way without really knowing much about the country/city. I now understand you meant no such thing.
Sorry I snapped and good luck down under.