COURSEY: Parking vs. passage at the Plaza

<p>A parking space has value, and using a car to get around has costs, so it shouldn't come as that big of a surprise to hear that the Santa Rosa Plaza plans to begin charging those who leave their cars for more than 90 minutes in its downtown garages.</p><p>An estimated 400 people a day use the mall's free parking in lieu of paying for all-day city parking in downtown Santa Rosa. Those arriving downtown for work at 8 or 9 in the morning often grab the prime ground-floor spaces in the mall's garage well before any paying shoppers arrive, then let their cars sit there all day.</p><p>As a former downtown worker who took advantage of Plaza parking for years, I can't blame the mall's owners for getting sick of supporting the freeloaders.</p><p>It's the other news about the Santa Rosa Plaza that continues to raise my hackles.</p><p>After years of giving lip service to the idea of improving access and connectivity between the east and west sides of the mall — and between the Courthouse Square and Railroad Square sides of downtown — Simon Property Group has come up with a remodeling plan for the Plaza that does next to nothing to achieve that goal.</p><p>City leaders apparently can't — or don't want to — force Simon to change that. When the city's Design Review Board required Simon to simply study the options for better connectivity as part of the remodeling design, the board's chairman was demoted by Mayor Ernesto Olivares. The City Council then revoked the board's decision and rebuked the board's members for their temerity — which essentially was an attempt to get Simon to adhere to the city's own policies. </p><p>So, the 700,000-square-foot monster that rises across six blocks in the heart of the city will continue to be the Great Wall of Santa Rosa.</p><p>But even if the city won't encourage Simon to do what's best for the city, there's nothing keeping Simon from being a good neighbor. Its representatives long have acknowledged that the east-west connection is desirable. Yes, they like people to walk through the mall, because a lot of those people stop and buy something on their way.</p><p>But the connection is almost meaningless unless it is available when the mall is not otherwise open. People need to get to work before 10 a.m. — that's why all those free parking spots have been filling up before the mall opens. People need to get from one side of town to the other before Macy's cash registers start ringing. Some day in the not-too-distant future, commuters will need to get to and from the SMART train station in Railroad Square, and forcing them to walk around the Plaza instead of through it is contrary to what the city general plan envisions for the downtown's future.</p><p>Critics say Simon is shooting itself in the foot by instituting paid parking at the Plaza. I don't necessarily agree with that view; I think the vast majority of those who park for 90 minutes or more at the mall are just trying to avoid paying for parking nearby. </p><p>And, by charging a little more than the city does for its on-street and garage parking, the result of Simon's plan should be a net increase in city parking revenues.</p><p>That's good for Santa Rosa.</p><p>But, by continuing to resist efforts to create better ties between the east and west sides of downtown, Simon still comes off as a bad guy in this chain of events.</p><p>Instead, the company should be a good neighbor, a corporate citizen that participates in the continuing improvement of its community.</p><p>Simon's fellow citizens don't need free parking, just free passage.</p><p>Is that too much to ask?</p><p></p><p><i>Chris Coursey's blog offers a community commentary and forum, from issues of the day to the ingredients of life in Sonoma County.</i></p>