Parking
Life, liberty and library parking
We expect to pay for our apartments, our clothes, and our transit rides. So why do many people start feeling as though our basic American values are threatened if parking isn't free?
Rockville's library. Photo by Rob
Goodspeed on Flickr.
In Rockville, Benjamin Franklin is playing a central role in the debate over whether the county should subsidize parking in pay garages for anyone using the library. Montgomery is paying $90,000 a year to validate parking in the Rockville Town Center garage, adjacent to its library. The library's policy is to validate anyone's parking pass, meaning that people can park at Town Center, go to one of the restaurants, then validate the pass at the library and enjoy free parking on the county's dime. Meanwhile, library patrons don't get free bus or Metro rides to the library (though perhaps they should).
According to the Post, county councilmember Anne Robbins is invoking the name of public library founder Ben Franklin, who "understood that the very foundation of a free society depends on the education of its citizens." That's true, but a free society doesn't depend on free parking to get there. Ideally, a free society wouldn't force people to live far from the library and from transit where driving and parking are their only option.
Parking subsidy opponent George Leventhal did some Franklin research of his own, concluding that neither the library Franklin founded, nor the City of Philadelphia's public libraries, offer free parking. As for the argument that disabled people need access, Leventhal points out that anyone with a disabled pass gets to park for free at Town Center, whether they are looking for books or buying a cup of coffee (which isn't free).
 | David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.   |
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Anyhow, parking in Rockville Town Square is free on weekday evenings and all day on weekends. So I don't understand what the complaint is about.
There's also a gigantic, free, surface parking lot one block north of Rockville Town Square. Hopefully, however, that will eventually be redeveloped into a similar town center-type development.
Montgomery County has an extensive local bus network that complements Metrobus service, so that most Rockville residents are within walking distance of bus stops. And through the MetroAccess and Call'n'Ride services, 327,000 trips annually are provided for seniors and persons with disabilities.
What this is really about is people who are rich enough to own cars but too cheap to pay $1 per hour for parking.
by Laurence Aurbach on Jun 6, 2008 1:34 pm • link • report
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