Update Regarding Project to Install Driveway onto Jenifer St. - 11/02/10

Willy Street Co-op doesn't have a parking lot issue. It has a marketing issue.

Why do car driving shoppers need to park fifty feet from the entrance to the Willy Street Co-op? These same shoppers don't expect nor demand this same privilege at Woodmans or Best Buy or at any other big box store. Grocery shoppers at Woodmans may easily walk the distance of one to two blocks just to get from their car to the front door. Then there's another four or more blocks around the store while shopping and another one to two blocks to get back to their car. They've easily put in a half mile without complaints or expectations of anything less. At East Towne they might walk a half mile just to get from their car to the store, a mile while shopping, and another half mile back to their car, for a total of two miles to do their shopping.

If people aren't going to shop without their cars, then let's at least get them out of their cars earlier -- down the street a bit. It's good for them health-wise, it's good for the Willy Street parking lot, it's good for the business district, and it's good for the whole neighborhood, which is much more vibrant and alive with pedestrians milling about. Business districts conduct more business with pedestrians than with people driving by in cars.

Details can be worked out in various ways. If there are insufficient parking spots on Willy St, add some angled parking spaces on the first block of the side streets directly off Williamson. The parking lot is already a little cumbersome. Make it more cumbersome. Cause a preference for going beyond the parking lot.

To prevent the inconvenience of shopping carts being wheeled down the street, add a pullout lane in front of the co-op, where shoppers pull off and load up groceries, similar to the grocery pick-up that exists at Woodmans and other large grocery stores. The lane can look similar to a bus stop pullout lane. An example of this is on Johnson Street between Charter and Mills streets unless that was removed when they rebuilt the street. An employee brings out carts of grocieries for loading. Cart numbers are written or keyed onto the receipts. The parking lot has extra width in this area. Narrowing this area also makes for a safer pedestrian crossing from the front door to the streetscape sidewalk. The driveup pickup service may be preferable to shoppers than navigating around in that lot hunting for a parking space. Promote it. Make it fun. Make it advantageous.

The co-op can sell those foldable wheeled carts that elderly shoppers used to wheel to grocery stores in the 1960's for their groceries -- back when pedestrian culture was alive and well. See the attached files for examples. Shoppers are already trained to bring their wallets and cloth bags. Now add a cart to their list of shopping tools.

Other nearby businesses might also use the pullout lane for phone order pickups from their restaurant, pharmacy or other businesses, garnering customers who pass through but don't live or stop in the neighborhood. Or not, if the neighborhood doesn't want to promote drive-through shopping. I'm just throwing out ideas at this point.

Promoting a media campaign to get shoppers out of their cars earlier can entail all of Williamson Street. Using a tagline of "Walk Willy" or "Willy Feet" or some other catchy and short phrase that lends itself easily to graphical elements, can enhance the entire business district immensely.

Bike usage will only be increasing as bicycling continues to get safer and the city continues to promote it. Jenifer Street, from Baldwin to the west end, is the only street wide enough for bicyclists to be a legal and safe distance from parked cars and which still allows cars to pass by. It is also free of stop signs, speed bumps, large hills, and the deep guttered curb ramp bumps that bikes encounter while intersecting with streets on a bike trail or sidewalk. And finally, we have gotten the thoroughfare cars off Jenifer Street and back onto Willy Street so Jenifer is relatively car-free most of the time. In other words, that generally car-free stretch of Jenifer Street is the most perfect bicycle boulevard in the city and allows bicyclists enough speed to ensure a faster route to downtown than either a bus or a car can provide. It is senseless to make the Willy Street parking lot safer for cars at the detriment of bikes. This is not an either/or situation. Let's make it safer for both. Make Jenifer Street an official bicycle boulevard. Move more parking customers to Willy Street.

The co-op's parking lot is fine. Our challenge is to create a preference for beyond the parking lot. This is a marketing issue. Success is attainable and reaches far beyond Willy Street Co-op to the entire business district. Winning this challenge doesn't just solve a problem; it will make the neighborhood a much better place.

Donna Magdalina