You know your downtown is prospering when it cannot find the real estate space for parking structures. It’s not that we don’t have them, Colorado Springs likes to disguise them as real buildings.
The pitch is that these parking structures with the faux facades of plate-glass shop windows along the sidewalk, and reflective office windows above, can be readily converted to real shops and offices as the city requires. However do they propose to deal with the half of each parking deck floor which is angled as a ramp?
For the time being however the city has added three of these structures, to further encourage commuters to eschew mass transportation. Walking past on the sidewalk you get the impression of having chanced upon a car dealer showroom. But soon the oil stains and lack of doorways reminds you that the tenancy is metered. At night the un-upholstered concrete innards look even more deserted.
Is it a good idea, not having to look at our cars? And to further expand our false-urban neighborhood with unpopulated shops and public spaces?
