I LOOOOVE the idea of a carless downtown, but...

• Eastside-originating (or freeway) traffic would have to go thru downtown to get to the lot. What's our alternative?
• To really have enough parking, I think you'd need to have multi-story. (Am I remembering correctly that WSECU is building multistory parking over by their Oly branch, and that it'll be available at least part of the time to the general public?)
• And I agree with Burr: instant eyesore. (I work near that new Lowes on Yelm Highway, and that vast expanse of parking lot is so very depressing.)

IT's Dash program seems something like what you're talking about in terms of a "shuttle" service, with the parking lots up by the capital & down at the Farmer's Market in the role of parking space. I would be curious about how successful it's been.

Similarly, I've heard that the late night bus service between the westside & downtown went quite well this last spring. That's the kind of thing that keeps the cars entirely away from the downtown area: better transit options from the fringes to the core.

I'm also really interested in underground parking where it's feasible. (Not in the floodplain, obviously.) That takes up the least space and creates the least eyesore.

We're stuck with a certain amount of sprawl for a while, because that's where the building are. But we certainly can look at making alternative modes more viable and more acceptable.

I'd "raise the bar" & elevate the built environment up!

Allow for open ground-floor expanses, create urban canyons and gullies between the lake and market, and create arcade niches for businesses along these corridors. Let awnings and covered walkways encourage strolls through the downtown area, while creating more density for the the whole scene.

-promote elevated parking that ties in with elevated roads, so folks going cross-town can do that, un-impeded, or pull-off into a elevated parking facility (like in Tacoma), and stash the car and go on foot or human powered wheels...

...or take the building down, and just let the land grow tress again...maybe an eco-park next to an international hostel or pet playground?

The more I think about, the less I want any development in town, primarily because of the construction mess...

>...but then I waffle, and think...<

...maybe the way to look at this is to think about getting a job working on any one of these projects & just make the most out of these tumultuous times =)

- 5th Ave, from Capitol Way heading east for at least two blocks

- Washington St, from the transit center to Sylvester Park

told me about a city where some streets are made pedestrian-only only at certain times on weekends on a regular schedule. I know Oly does this on occasion. How about making it a regular weekly thing? 

...for health & recreation, and also to raise awareness about how our lives are coupled to the health of our waterways.

So, one of my hopes is that a public aquatic center be developed in downtown or port area.

Oly used to have streetcars. This was a past subject here on OlyBlog. The idea of a pedestrian-only Olympia appeals to my childhood memories from the late 1950s-early 1960s.

Before Dan Evans was elected in 1964 the State offices were confined to the west side of Capitol Way. But Evans, a Republican, expanded government to such a degree that the east campus was required. As a result blocks and blocks of fine homes were destroyed and with them Olympia's walk-to-town consumer base. 

Mom and Pop groceries used to line Capitol Way and dot downtown. But not after Evans was through. Olympians used to walk to town to shop and exchange neighborhood news. But not after Space City was built. By the 1970s, downtown Oly had died.

Ironically, it was the hated, radical, outsider Evergroovers who initially invested in and saved downtown. This created a culture that was unique for a city of Oly's size. 

Oly can build on this special foundation, or destroy it.

I propose that a carless zone will help bring back a sense of neighborhood that has been lost for several decades. And the advent of park-and-ride lots with streetcars/mass transit will help. The isthmus would be far more profitable to the downtown merchants as a parking lot than as a high-rise. Park-and-ride lots on farther points would be good too.

Hey, wait. Actually, Burr has convinced me that the isthmus should be a park, not a parking lot. The high-rises can go somewhere else where global tide-rise and earthquake damage won't be so high-risk. I lived through the 1965 and the 2001 quakes. That isthmus is an accident waiting to happen. I sure as heck wouldn't live there! I saw what happened to Deschutes Parkway on both quakes. No way would I buy anything there in that neighborhood! Only a gullible consumer with no sense of history would invest on a home in this proposal by Triway Enterprises.  

So to me, the real question is, where should the park-and-ride lots be situated?

I was thinking yesterday about the proposed park for the Laria Passage site, and I thought that it would impractical given the money we spend on parks in Olympia to buy and build something there, but also because of the lack of housing downtown. Most people would have to drive to use that park, and that would seem like we're heading in the same direction.

To me, a no driving area downtown (such as fifth between Capital and Franklin an Washington between State and Legion) would be an urban walking park. If there aren't enough people already living downtown to really make use of a converted street plaza, what's the use of doing it? You are just going to be asking people like me to drive there. 

I like the pedestrian-only business core as well, my only concern being disabled folks and if they would be left out. OR if they would have a system put in that just didn't work out well. Sadly I've seen it too many times now where if you can't walk well, you don't get to have fun with the rest of everyone. :(