Editorial: Pittsburgh Fails to Provide Adequate Parking Around Downtown

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial Board sys a lack of parking is one of the city's biggest failures.

"Officials should consider parking a priority, yet they treat it as an afterthought," according to the editorial.

"Motorists cruising the section of Strip District near Downtown will see lot after lot reserved for leaseholders. Daily parkers are out of luck."

The editorial looks to the future of development, like the Civic Arena site in the Lower Hill neighborhood, and only sees the situation getting worse for cruising motorist. A parking district proposed by the Central Business District for the Civic Arena area "sounds like a big shell game" to the editorial board.

The editorial's big point: that the city should return to the 20th century planning paradigm of parking requirements. The editorial suggests this course of action without referencing the parking reform movement, or the literature behind that movement. "The city has a habit of allowing developers — even prodding them — to put up buildings without making provisions for the people who drive to do business in them. Couple the lack of parking spaces with the rapacity of lot owners, and the problem comes into sharp focus."