pash wrote:A great starting place to try one of these would be in one of the places where on-street parking was removed for the streetcar because the width of the remaining parking lane was too narrow, or where there's otherwise a stretch of pavement that's striped off because it's too narrow for parking. That way, there's no argument about losing parking—it's just otherwise completely useless pavement being put to a useful purpose.
For instance, in the Crossroads there's a pretty decent patch of pavement striped off between the driveways for the parking lots for Tom's Town and Ruins on northbound Main. That might be to provide sight lines for drivers turning out of those driveways, but if we ignore that this is a thread about the need for parks in the Crossroads, there are other spots elsewhere on Main that seem like there'd be no reason at all not to be able to put in parklet: maybe the stretch of former on-street parking space on Main adjacent to the southbound P&L streetcar stop. Another space similar to that but even bigger space is on northbound Main outside Town Pavilion, directly north of the Metro Center streetcar stop, and there's another stretch of too-narrow-for-parking pavement farther north outside the Commerce Building. Back in the Crossroads, half the block of northbound Main between 16th and 17th is like that, but that wouldn't be a good spot because of the dismal surroundings.
There are several other sizeable spaces of the same sort, and about as many more smaller ones. There are also some other spots that might be marked no-parking for other reasons, like directly adjacent to the entrance to the City Market at Fifth & Walnut.
I was getting ready to suggest this before I read your post. Good thinking.
