ICYMI: Rockville’s Parking Woes Made National News

The parking situation in Rockville is bad, but is it really bad enough to make it nationally newsworthy?

Well, in case you missed it, Rockville’s parking woes really did make national news—a Dec. 12 post at Slate.com’s Moneybox Blog used parking Rockville as a touch point for a broader discussion about who should shoulder the burden of making it available.

The blog post referenced The Gazette’s account of Duball Rockville LLC’s presentation to the Rockville City Council on Dec. 9, explaining why they wanted to reduce residential parking by 40 percent at a project slated for Rockville Town Square.

At that meeting, Patch has reported, Duball President Marc Dubick asserted to the Mayor and Council that “there’s excess parking” in Rockville Town Square. The council body seemed unconvinced—as did a few Patch readers. 

The writer uses this to make a bigger argument for why such matters, like parking availability, should be left to market forces, and likened the use of zoning laws to govern the number parking spaces at new developments to “Soviet-style economic central planning.” 

The blog post goes on to say:

“Suppose other kinds of business decisions were made this way. Maybe someone wants to open a burger joint in Rockville, but he doesn't want to serve milkshakes. One councilman says the last time he wanted to get a milkshake there was a very long line, so obviously the new burger place must serve milkshakes. Another councilman protests that he doesn't even like burgers. Aren't more people vegetarians these days?”

Read the full post, Central Planning in America, at Slate.com 

>>> Speak out: What do you think about this post at Slate.com? Should the city leave matters, such as parking availability, to the forces of the market?