As regular readers of this column know, I consider parking garages the lowest form of downtown development. The uninhabited structures suck the life out of their surroundings and encourage people to choose cars over transit for trips into Center City. But if there is one thing worse than a free-standing downtown garage, it is a blighted free-standing downtown garage.
Center City, unfortunately, is riddled with such eyesores, especially in the retail corridor east of City Hall, between Arch and Walnut Streets. Many were built in the '50s and '60s, when parking was hailed as a cure for declining shopping districts, but now these blighted garages are bringing down the neighborhood themselves. Some of the worst offenders are operated by - wouldn't you know it - the Philadelphia Parking Authority, the agency that should be setting the standard. Read more here…
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