No great city is known for its abundant parking supply. If we had to rebuild a place like North Beach under today's parking requirements, as much as a third of the space where people live would be given up for parking. We would lose much of the street life–the shops and cafes, the vendors and the stoops–that make areas like North Beach vibrant and interesting. We don't build places like these today because we require so much parking. There are plenty of examples of the kinds of buildings our parking requirements result in. We just need to imagine a city composed entirely of these buildings, and ask ourselves if this is the kind of city we want in the future.

We have many places in San Francisco with good access to transit, neighborhood-serving shops and other amenities. These places work because they have a limited, well-managed parking supply that makes alternatives to driving attractive and viable. Our challenge is to pick up on this tradition and ensure that where it makes sense, new development builds on these patterns and enhances the urban qualities that make them work. In these places we can limit the amount of new parking based on existing levels of car ownership and the city's transit goals. We can support alternatives to private car ownership by encouraging carsharing and separating the cost of a housing unit from the cost of parking. We can improve the residential parking permit program to make more efficient and equitable use of the on-street parking supply.

Continuous, active ground floor uses are the key to making commercial streets comfortable and inviting. The city's most successful commercial streets are places for people, with plenty of spaces for walking and lingering.



Garage doors create large voids in the life of the street and detract from the vitality and character of commercial streets. Turning cars can pose a serious threat to passers-by.
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