Parking Management for Downtown Northfield, MN

Developing a plan with stakeholders and residents

New domain name and website: NorthfieldDowntownParking.org

By Griff Wigley, on February 4th, 2013

Sharp-eyed readers will notice that the web address for this project has changed to northfielddowntownparking.org. The old domain still works, but it automatically redirects here.

I was unhappy with some of the limitations of having the site at wordpress.com, especially when it comes to handling comments which will be a big part of this project.

I’ve a variety of miscellaneous things to fix/update but comments should now be working. Let me know if you see any glitches.

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Blog discussion: parking issues relevant to bicyclists (23)
- Lee Gifford: hmm… “head-out” parking really sounds like a great idea! However I would only be in favor of the change if the downtown took the proper planning to see if all sections of downtown parking could be safely converted...
- Griff Wigley: Lee, welcome to Northfield! And thanks much for taking the time to compose such a thoughtful and detailed comment. I’ve moved it from the straw poll blog to this discussion thread since most of your comments are about biking....
- Lee Gifford: I recently moved to Northfield from downtown Minneapolis for reason that would involve a long long story which I don’t think is to important. I was really surprised at how much Northfield has to offer! Granted I mostly drive...
- Sean Hayford Oleary: Yes. I suppose the most neutral term for this type facility would simply be “shoulder” — though that usually suggests a rural road, where on-street parking would be virtually non-existent.
- Griff Wigley: And in effect, that’s what Jefferson Road has on the west side of the street, right?
Take the Northfield downtown parking straw poll (7)
- Griff Wigley: The Northfield News is conducting an online straw poll: “How often do you have trouble finding a parking space downtown?” See their right sidebar.
- Griff Wigley: The straw poll is now closed. I expect to have the results posted by Monday morning.
- Griff Wigley: I plan to end the straw poll tonight at midnight. So if you’ve not yet taken in, now’s the time. I’ll then blog the results, along with the submitted comments. And then we can refer to it as needed when we started...
- Griff Wigley: 63 respondents to the straw poll thus far, with lots of comments. I’m thinking I’ll keep it open till next weekend.
- Griff Wigley: Dan, glad you chimed in. Did you take the poll as well? I added a section there based on your face-to-face comment in GBM last week. Dean, it never occurred to me that we’d have non-vehicle owners taking the parking poll but I...
Focused blog discussions till March 10 (1)
- Griff Wigley: We’ve extended the blog discussions for another ten days.
Blog discussion: parking issues relevant to pedestrians (14)
- George Kinney: No — I haven’t looked into that, I’ll see if I can find anything. As far as training drivers, I’ve often thought it interesting that we work to get the 15-year-olds fully educated, then turn them loose until...
- Griff Wigley: George, are you aware of any education campaigns that have been deemed effective, not just about crosswalks but about the “complete streets” movement?
- George Kinney: Education is needed. As some readers/participants know,I teach the AARP Drivers Safety courses, and many drivers are unaware that they must yield to pedestrians in all crosswalks (at any intersection). Many believe that the only...
- Griff Wigley: Steve, in your walks around downtown are there any other intersections that you think need 4-way or even 2-way stop signs?
- Griff Wigley: George, that happened to me and Robbie a couple years ago at the intersection of 5th and Division. Fortunately, a Northfield cop watched it happened and immediately pulled over the offender. As a regular biker and walker, do you...
Blog discussion: parking issues relevant to downtown building owners (7)
- Griff Wigley: I’ve gotten some parking-related comments to my recent post on the Locally Grown Facebook page wall. Three people said they never have trouble finding a parking spot downtown. I’ll copy/paste my replies here for the...
- Griff Wigley: Jim, ‘extortion’ and ‘violence’ are two words I’ve not heard in connection to parking meters, Cool Hand Luke (video link) not withstanding. But you didn’t say why you see parking meters in such...
- James Rossow: Parking meters is a form of legal extortion. Putting parking meters downtown will change the profile of downtown in a negative fashion. It is a form of municipal violence. Don’t do it.
- Griff Wigley: Krin, good to have a longtime downtown retailer chiming in here. Do you think we need hard data on the amount of downtown parking enforcement that’s done each year (eg, citations issued, revenue collected, repeat offenders,...
- Krin Finger: Education & Enforcement: I’ve attended 1 or 2 parking task force meetings throughout my 25+ years ‘parked’ on Division Street. Each one ends the same: final cost breakdown of adding more parking and...
Creating public awareness of the downtown parking management project (1)
- Griff Wigley: I’ve continued to post updates on the latest developments with this project: * Twitter account @Nfld_Parking, retweeted by @LoGroNfld * Comments to the blog post on Locally Grown * Comments to the blog post on Northfield.org *...
Northfield Downtown Parking straw poll results (82 responses) (3)
- Griff Wigley: For convenience and quoting, here are the responses to the Straw Poll Item/Question 13 (What other comments do you have related to non-motorized transportation and downtown? Northfield is small enough, compact enough and its...
- Griff Wigley: For convenience and quoting, here are the responses to the Straw Poll Item/Question 12 (What would encourage you to use non-motorized means to get downtown more often? Or conversely, what are the obstacles that discourage you from...
- Griff Wigley: For convenience and quoting, here are the responses to the Straw Poll Item/Question 8 (comments on anything related to Parking Habits items 1-7: I don’t usually have a problem finding a parking spot fairly close to my...
Pedestrians to meet, offer input on downtown parking. What’s a walking shed? (2)
- Griff Wigley: No problem that you missed the gathering, Beth. We’ll have a follow-up blog discussion thread here in the near future.
- Beth Kallestad: Griff – unfortunately can’t make it (some of us have to work ) Looking forward to seeing what others have to say on this topic. We chose our current house location and will most likely choose our next based on the...
Help design the downtown parking online straw poll (20)
- Griff Wigley: With a few final adjustments, the straw poll is now live. See the blog post and click to it from there and let me know if anything seems amiss. http://northfieldparking.wordp ress.com/2013/01/28/take-the-n orthfield-downtown-parkin...
- Griff Wigley: I’ve done a little more tinkering with the straw poll and plan to launch it tomorrow. Changes I’ve made: * I’ve added “Give up and go elsewhere” as a third option to #7: What do you typically do when you...
- Griff Wigley: Dean, thanks for the thoughtful, detailed comment. We are in the final edits on an FAQ page that will answer some of your questions, so I’ll reply to you here as soon as I have that up. But in the meantime, be sure to read what...
- Griff Wigley: Randy, you wrote: ” Encouraging more discussion without a shared set of facts is like inviting people to a book group with no expectation that they will first read the book. That’s silly.” No it isn’t. It’s...
- Griff Wigley: Randy, If you look at the consensus statement of the Council parking committee and the NDDC (PDF) at: http://northfieldparking.files .wordpress.com/2012/12/downtow n-northfield-parking-conversat ion-12-18-12-update.pdf you’ll...
Project for Public Spaces has ideas about parking management (2)
- Griff Wigley: Kiffi, the Council wants a management plan for the existing parking. We really won’t be discussing developing or building anything during the course of this project.
- kiffisumma: So can the conversation be had as to what can we do to enhance what is there, potentially not fully developed, and forget building anything? There’s no $$ anyway; neither in the city’s, nor the building owner’s...
Wider sidewalks vs. a parking crunch: St. Paul’s Lowertown may have lessons for Northfield (2)
- Griff Wigley: Kiffi, this is the basic site! Everything happens here. The city is in the middle of putting up their new website platform any day now and we’ll have them link here as soon as that happens.
- kiffisumma: Where is the basic site for this parking discussion located??? It does not come up with a search on the City’s website, and is not on the Home page??? Kiffi
The NDDC wants you to join “The Conversation” on downtown parking management (17)
- Ross Currier: Stephanie - Enforcing the the posted parking limits is a classic parking management technique. I’m looking forward to hearing from the retailers on any thoughts or concerns regarding the two hour limit. Thanks so much for...
- Stephanie Carlson: What if…we would actually enforce the 2 hour parking limit on Division Street. I work downtown and see the same folks parking ALL DAY on Division Street, and often I see cars parked downtown overnight. Just thinking that...
- Griff Wigley: David, I did get a copy from Tim Madigan today. Thx!
- David Ludescher: Griff – I deleted it. I will see if Mr. Madigan has a copy.
- Griff Wigley: Thanks, David. Can you forward the email from the City Attny to me via private email? I’m doing a series of presentations for the League of MN Cities and I’ll see if I can get them to help us out on this.
Northfield News article on parking management (2)
- Ross Currier: Margit - Way cool. I’ll see if Chris Heineman or Joe Stapf can get their hands on that information. Thanks much, Ross
- Margit Johnson: Ross, my long term memory is vague, but there is another parking study sitting on a shelf somewhere in City Hall. I recall serving on a downtown transportation and parking task force some time in the 1980’s. I have no recollection...
How is this engagement project going to work? (2)
- Ross Currier: Dean - The context of my titling businesses as “stars” was in reaction to the suggestion that we would ultimately consider tearing down all the buildings to create unlimited parking. Of course, I don’t think the...
- Dean Kjerland: NDDC Executive Director Ross Currier, and I assume it reflects the NDDC’s Board and supporters, stated on the Home/Blog tab on this Parking Management website that ‘the “stars” of downtown are the retailers, restaurants,...
New FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page now up (2)
- Ross Currier: Dean - GREAT IDEA. Thanks SO much. Chris - Let’s talk with Joe about this contact info.
- Dean Kjerland: Griff, regarding your FAC #4, I might add data from a 12/9/2012 email from the City Engineering Dept, ‘To All Downtown [winter] Parking Permit Holders’: the list includes 47 emails – and I know that some of them...