Tacoma may set an example for other Cascadia cities with a comprehensive parking plan that includes provisions for more transit and bicycle facilities.
Best of all is talk of combining market forces and public investment to make the city work better. Here's how the city manager put it:
When it comes to parking, “nobody wants to become Seattle,” Anderson said. “Portland is the one that’s held up as pretty good, but we’d like to be better than Portland.”
Among the recommendations:
-- Make the city’s parking system self-supporting with revenue from pay stations and garages. Use cost to regulate demand and setting parking prices at a level that maintains a 15 percent vacancy rate. (Brilliant! Why not do it with meters around the clock?)
-- Build a citywide streetcar system that connects downtown with other neighborhoods.
-- Build a citywide system for bikes and pedestrians using trails and street rights-of-way.