Tucker Boulevard should be, could be an urban street...

..if not for things like this:



That's the rendering for the new parking garage at Tucker and Clark. Even the announcement that the garage will feature LED lighting (changed periodically for sports and civic events) is simply not enough to distract from the simple fact that downtown needs no new parking provisions at all.

It should be clear enough by now that the more "convenient" (read: plentiful, cheap) parking is in an urban area, the less urban that area becomes. Visitors to and even residents of downtown may find it easier to drive everywhere and walk the least amount possible. All of the potential points between point A and point B are missed, leading to squandered opportunities for urbanism.

I saw the pared down plans for the Tucker facade of Park Pacific on Downtown St. Louis Business, and I am not impressed either. Another parking garage to front Tucker?

Already, the two bare minimalist high rises on Tucker just north of Chestnut and Pine are perhaps the most hideous high profile buildings anywhere--this coming from a supporter of mid-century modernism, mind you.

Tucker is so wide it appears to spar with Market Street for the title of preeminent downtown boulevard. It is tempting to say that the parking garage is better than the surface lot, but the surface lot is much more likely to be turned into offices, residential, clean industry, shops, or all of the above in the farther future.

We do not need two extra parking garages on this nearly (urbanistically speaking) dead street. It has the potential to be a real showcase street--a moniker New Orleans' similarly wide Canal Street is fighting valiantly to attain once more.