Defining Modesty Down
The new dorm that’s going in place of the Frieze building, reports the News, will be near “a neighborhood of modest homes across Huron Street.” By which they mean the Old Fourth Ward, where houses have been on the market for upwards of $1 million. The residents of this beleaguered little area are worried about parking, as well as the possibility that “more chain stores catering to students will open in the retail area.” It would really be a shame if chains forced out all those great independent local businesses on State Street like Potbelly, Starbucks, Urban Outfitters and Jimmy John’s.
Damn students! Nothing but trouble; bring down property values, park cars on streets, take up seats in Stabucks. Ugh, you get the picture!
posted by merrie on November 7th, 2004 at 7:38 pmI’m thrilled that this is going in. 500 residents in the heart of downtown!? Happy day.
This should be a great thing for State street businesses.
posted by todd leopold on November 8th, 2004 at 11:43 amFive hundred new downtown residents with minimal-no parking requirements? Sounds great! Glad the University doesn’t have to pander to the Old Fourth Ward any more than those Ann Arbor High School alumni-preservationists. Perhaps we can think about allowing night-time parking on Huron to address OFW concerns though. Not that they have any more right to public street parking than anybody else.
posted by tomo on November 8th, 2004 at 12:23 pmMaybe I’d feel differently if I didn’t have off-street parking, but I doubt this is going to create a huge strain. Also, I find it hard to believe that a lot of Old Fourth Ward Association homeowners have cars but don’t have driveways. Why would someone pay those kind of prices to own a house in our “modest” little neighborhood if they need a parking spot and it doesn’t have it?
posted by ann arbor is overrated on November 8th, 2004 at 1:58 pmActually, the one concern I would have is that the 500 carless residents will embolden downtown businesses to charge even more, especially near-monopolies like White Market.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on November 8th, 2004 at 1:59 pm“Why would someone pay those kind of prices to own a house in our ‘modest’ little neighborhood if they need a parking spot and doesn’t have it?”
The reason that some OFW residents would so such a thing — defying common sense (gee, I have a car, and no driveway, maybe this is a problem) — is that many of those folks feel a sense of entitlement. They think that because they have houses there, the street parking belongs to them. Haven’t you noticed the “resident parking only” zones in some areas? Those zones are a direct result of that sort of thinking, “I don’t want to pay the money to buy a house that would allow me to park — so I will just take a public resource and use it as my own.”
Notice that that resident-only parking zones are very rare in student areas.
posted by Anna on November 8th, 2004 at 2:04 pmI had a car and no driveway in Cambridge for a brief period (had the car for a brief period and the no driveway all of the time), and that was fine, but it seems like the average middle-aged, affluent homeowner wouldn’t put up with that. We did have resident-only parking, but you still often couldn’t get closer than 6-8 blocks, which was okay with me.
Where I’m from in the Chicago suburbs, you can’t park on a lot of streets between 7-9 am. That’s because they’re close to a high school, and the students might park there. There’s no parking crunch - you might see 1-2 cars total parked on my street in the course of a week - they just don’t want people parking on the street because they don’t like the way it looks.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on November 8th, 2004 at 2:15 pmI have to believe there would be some parking issues. People park illegally on and around the Hill dorms all the time, and those aren’t even on top of residential areas. You just can’t get street parking unless you have the luck of the devil or the Pizza House delivery guy (it’s true! they always find a spot!).
Still, that would be a heck of a location for a dorm. I’d love to live there if I could go back and be a wee freshman again. Wonder if they’ll change the University bus routes to accomodate it.
posted by art student on November 8th, 2004 at 3:28 pmAAIO - the no parking zones that are typically up from 7 to 9 AM and 4 to 6 PM have to do with keeping all lanes open for rush hour, more than bothering students. Even one car parked on a four-lane street in rush hour can bring the whole thing to a crawl.
posted by Dan on November 8th, 2004 at 4:19 pmBut this is in the suburb I grew up in, where there’s absolutely no traffic.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on November 8th, 2004 at 4:51 pmI don’t have a problem with the dorm, in fact I welcome it. However, there is a problem with parking around here, partially because already it is deluged with workers from the medical campus who don’t have parking stickers at the U.
I am a homeowner here in the OFW, but I have always had housemates (it’s a bit expensive around here in case no one has noticed), so the driveway and street parking have always been somewhat of a struggle, especially when people come in to visit.
This summer, I moved into the smaller unit of a duplex and have given the driveway to my tenants (so I can charge them the exhorbitant rent, ha-ha) and I have to street park. I can go along with that as well, but not if someone is going to “store” their car in the neighborhood spots. I have seen it before. This is the problem people are worried about with a dorm coming in, and I think it’s pretty legitimate.
As for the neighborhood stores, this is my pet peeve of OFW hypocracy…they only shop in them when they have guests in town and want to show them what a “Cool” city they live in. I used to work at Kerrytown and would rarely see my neighbors there. In fact, at most OFW get-togethers, there are plenty of Whole Foods bags to be found and it really pisses me off! Especially when they hit up people like Mike Monahan and Bob Sparrow for ads in the newsletter so they can “support the neighborhood.”
By the way neighbors…Bob Sparrow who owns the meat and produce market in Kerrytown has a card you can get that will give you 15% off. AND…if you buy over $100 worth of stuff, he will give you 20% off, so ditch the big box stores. (disclaimer: I don’t work for Bob, but I know him pretty well.)
posted by OFW insurgent on November 8th, 2004 at 5:35 pmThe parking bans in my surburban neighborhood are definitely designed to prohibit high school students from parking on the streets, which really irritates me. Streets are “public”, not only does this discriminate against the students, but totally inconveniences the residents - but let me add…unfortunately, I am in the minority on this.
posted by Anonymous on November 8th, 2004 at 8:00 pmShrug… I don’t blame OFW residents too much for being concerned about parking spaces… if you do have a car in an urban neighborhood with more cars than off-street spots it’s certainly a hassle. However, I think the majority of folks living in that dorm will be car-less, especially due to the place’s exceedingly central location and the fact that in my experience most folks in the dorms typically can’t/don’t own cars. My neighborhood (Old West Side) actually has an alternate-side parking rule unless you have a residential permit, perhaps to prohibit people from other neighborhoods from “storing” their cars on the street… although I’m not sure why you’d want to store your car over here for a long period of time if you didn’t live here. In any case, I don’t blame OFW folks for buying a house without onsite parking– any neighborhood that allows/requires street parking is a good neighborhood for pedestrians due as it implies density and provides walkers a psychological and actual sense of protection and enclosure from traffic.
And I really don’t think White Market is trying to rip anyone off… the economies of scale and high rents likely drive their higher-than-Kroger prices.
On a related note, have ya’ll seen what’s moving into the bottom of Corner House Lofts? With new construction comes lame chain stores almost as a rule, unfortunately.
posted by Brandon on November 8th, 2004 at 9:44 pmthank you brandon. I lived in Boston for a while and didn’t get my residential parking sticker and I WAS SCREWED constantly by tickets. I managed to get out out of Boston before they put the damn boot on my car (barely) as I was a subletter.
For the record, the OFW has always resisted the residential sticker, but this changes everything…there may be one vacant house selling for $1 million, but that is due to ex-council member david kwan (R). You reap what you sow. It is not a fancy-pants neighborhood, they just micromanage your ass around here.
posted by OFW insurgent on November 8th, 2004 at 11:39 pmart student, the new dorm will be just the other side of Rackham from the Fletcher St. stops on all of the University bus lines–they won’t really need to change them. (And almost definitely won’t: I think the University buses reasonably want to avoid State St.)
posted by Murph on November 9th, 2004 at 1:00 amThe new dorm might also encourage another food merchant to open up in the area.
posted by tom on November 9th, 2004 at 2:44 pmI totally agree, Tom. 500 residents plus staff will drastically change the demographics of the immediate area. I’m hoping that this isn’t the last mixed use project for the Diag area.
Murph…any inside info? I would assume that you have access to the Master Plan…..
As to the immediate parking concerns, I’m a firm believe that downtown residents have to have personal difficulties with parking before they support more parking garages downtown. I think that this will help…..otherwise, they will *always* choose parks over parking lots.
posted by todd leopold on November 9th, 2004 at 3:05 pm“The new dorm might also encourage another food merchant to open up in the area.”
I doubt it. There will be a 24-7 dining hall right there, and the snacks that dorm freshmen keep in their rooms are amply available within walking distance.
posted by Dale on November 10th, 2004 at 8:57 am