If this is really, I'm coming around to the belief that Ted is still posturing to stay in DC.
"“The city’s interest in these early discussions has been in keeping the number of parking spaces on this site at a minimum because we do not want a lot of vehicles accessing this use,” Wilson said. “This is intended to be a transit arena, a transit operation, that’s why we invested in a Metro station.”
Wilson said the new Potomac Yard will have a “significant net reduction” in parking spaces at the site.
“The intent is to ensure that we do not have people beyond a small core accessing this by vehicle,” Wilson said. “We will continue to push to keep parking at a minimum.”"
https://www.alxnow.com/2023/12/14/alexandria-mayor-potomac-yard-arena-will-have-minimal-parking-but-metro-station-currently-inadequate/
You'd have to be delusional to think building an arena in the suburbs and then having no parking will work. The whole reason this could have worked was by attracting Virginians, but if you don't live on the yellow or blue line, it will be a hassle to take metro and people won't bother
Delusional may cover it:
“Wilson acknowledged that “traffic and transportation is the biggest unknown here.” While some traffic improvements are planned for Route 1 as part of this project, according to City Manager James Parajon, Wilson said the city’s focus is on discouraging people from driving to the arena.”
We have the object lesson of Nats Park where they chose a spot that seem to use “downtown“ in a Camden Yards-esque image of previous success as the legitimizing factor to MLB rather than RFK. When comparing the two, one had a metro stadium built to handle stadium traffic and having acres of parking with access to major arteries, while the other seemed to be more lip service to the importance of building walkable communities at or near “downtown”, etc.
That of course was capped with the “everyone will just take metro“ trope, further undermined by the shuttle system that accompanied the stadium’s opening. The general fall off in attendance post-2008 seemed to help keep things somewhat manageable, with the issues becoming clear with the place was starting to get built out. Of course, that was accompanied with metro repairs and shutdowns that impacted traffic.
There’s been a “downtown” arena in MCI / Verizon / Capital One that integrated seamlessly into an area and seem to come through on the hopes of revitalization and becoming a true anchor, all with adequate infrastructure that includes not only metro but parking in office building underground lots. The only problem is, amateur hour and political theater appeared to return in force there, with the reports of reductions in law enforcement (wasn’t it 27 to 3 officers around there now?) resulting — as it has in Nats Park — with reduced patronage along with the general sense of safety issues. That’s something that preceded the shutdowns, as I remember going to a concert at the arena with family in 2019 and their expressed concerns about basically having to run the gauntlet away from people who wanted to approach them and having to find police officers to have a particularly gregarious inebriate back off.
With all of these object lessons plain to see, they seem to make this latest take of “everyone will just take metro” unbelievable here and to sorely lack in credibility from the word go. That’s notwithstanding this guy evidently taking it to a whole other level after cheerleading a proposal that actually cast traffic and transportation as the “biggest unknown” mere hours after the press conference! But that’s not enough: it’s actually followed by the city’s focus to discourage people from driving there!
Have you seen the numerous comparisons to what the Braves did in Cobb County? One of the similarities has to do with what Leonsis has stated many times: the majority of the attendance, especially for the Capitals, comes from Virginia. However, an increase the parking was one of the things that reportedly was highlighted by the Braves when they talked about the merits of moving out of their existing location. That reportedly included both available adjacent parking spaces as well as lots further out that had dedicated parking shuttles.
One of the reasons that the current DC arena has worked is because people really didn’t have to choose between Metro and parking, with the amount of available underground spaces close by being utilized and also keeping prices down because of availability. That was not the “biggest unknown“, as planning that involved local interests reportedly led those involved to a spot that could work very well regionally.
In the midst of arguable genuflections by local municipalities involved in the Amazon headquarters projects – – ironically repaid by the “pause“ in one of the main parts of the development – – and whose priorities such as everyone walking everywhere or taking public transportation (while Metroway buses which are often largely empty go back-and-forth for the limited times that they run), maybe it’s become a natural reflex to actually verbalize what he said right from the outset?
Again, this is a relatively small plot of land that primarily has one north-south road of limited capacity serving it. The Metro station has already been a compromise in terms of access and space to begin with. Talk about how there will need to be improvements may mainly be limited to be completing part of the entrance options that have been planned but scaled back. However, there doesn’t look like there can or will be much fixing of the existing capacity issues that already had to factor in “wetlands“ and the proximity to the GW Parkway to the east, nor would I hold my breath on much in the way of actual platform capacity improvements.
Of course, all of these assurances of kinda sorta maybe hopefully figuring it our over time don’t exactly seem to be bolstered when the guy literally talked about not running for reelection, evidently knowing full well the time in the limelight the city was about to face.
