Enabling cars in Decatur is not helping it. Parking consumes an enormous amount of space with very little return on investment. It pushes costs of development up and forces a very suburban pattern of every use accompanied by it subservient, accessory parking lot: CVS, Taco Mac, old Wachovia property, etc. Downtown Decatur won’t be economically successful until it divorces itself from the car. The existing and built out, low density single-family homes are not going to create a sufficient economic market to spur growth in downtown. It needs rooftops. Trying to accomodate car parks in a traditional manner will cut in half the future market for Decatur.

I do believe that parking signage really needs to be addressed. I haven’t been everywhere, but I think Asheville has good signage for parking. It’s brightly colored, there are specific and distinctive signs JUST for parking. These are things we currently lack.

I’m not saying this will solve Fairview’s problems, because there are always going to be folks who will want to park close regardless of signage. Or it will just rain and people won’t want to walk from a far away deck. But better signage can overall be a net positive, so hopefully we can look at it after we install the new parking meters.