I moved into Wicker
Park
Nowadays, if I park closer than a block away, it’s a good
day.
Like most folks, I blamed the new development. It seemed a
good bet. After all, I was standing on the corner at ground zero when the condo
bomb went off, All the vacant lots were filled with infill construction, the
factories had been turned into loftominiums. North Ave. used to look like
Armitage, dotted with single family and small commercial. Now it is lined with
four story buildings. Like most folks, I figured that the increased
population used up all of the parking
spots.
Then I read a three part article in The Straight Dope by Ed
Zotti, called “Where everybody went”
He had crunched the data from the 2010 census and produced a
bunch of maps showing demographic shifts throughout the city.
In part three he had a map showing the change in housing
units from 1970 to 2010.
I was squinting at the map, trying to pick out my census
tract when I realized something.
Despite my impression of massive development, the number of
housing units in Wicker park was pretty much the same as it was in 1970. I went
back to part one and looked at the population density in 1980 and 2010 and
again I was surprised. The population here is about the same as it was when I
got here.
I was still incredulous, and looked at the census data
myself. It was true. Here are a couple of graphs I produced from the data for
the 8 census tracts that make up Wicker
Park
So where have all the cars come from? This is a problem 24
hours a day. They can’t all be day trippers and barflies?
Here’s another graph from 1970 to 2010 stacking the count of resident’s cars
over the number of dwelling units.
The answer is clear. We don’t have too many people, we have
too many cars.
And look at the timeline, this isn't some fallout from the
postwar car culture, this is a pile of buffalo chips we dragged in our shoes.
We tried mandating minimum parking ratios for new
construction.
Here’s a graph of our worst tract.
This tract has
probably the highest off street parking ratio in the neighborhood.
Only 5% of the units are in historic buildings with no
parking, 15% are in single family homes with 2 car garages and fully 75% of the
housing was built after 1990 and has a mandated 1-1 parking minimum. Despite an average
parking ratio of at least 1.1 the automobile ratio is 1.3. And judging by the street parking at least
half of the people are using their garages to store lawn furniture
I have come to the conclusion that cars are like goldfish. If
you keep feeding them, they will grow until they fill the bowl.
Neighborhoods are funny things, when they stop growing, they
start dying.
We have reached a point where the parking situation is
strangling our growth.
That is why I am flexible about reduced parking ratios.
We haven’t room for any more cars.
Paul K. Dickman
