Evening star., 1931-12-29
Wanted-A Parking Policy.

What the city seems to need as
much as parking space for automobiles
| according to the annual report Of the
National Capital Park and Planning
Commission, is a parking policy.
I'm Washington there should be
agreement upon and persistent adher-
ence to a self-consistent and ar-sighted
policy, or group of associated policies
by the several agencies of government
responsible in various ways for the
handling of automobile storage In the
principal business district says the
report. and it proceeds to list such
! agencies as the District Commissioners,
the Office of Public Buildings and
Public Parks, the Public Buildings Com
mission and in the last analysis, Con-
gress." Conspicuous among the agencies
not named are the Office of the Archi-
tect of the Capitol and the Commission
of Fine Arts.
The policy. according to the COM
mission, should be based upon the doc
trine that lit is not legitimate tunc-
ton of public streets and parks TO pro-
vide storage for vehicles when not In
use for transportation. 1t should, II
the commissions advice is followed, ac-
cept the fact that the Federal Govern
ment, which provides Offices for Its
workers, also should provide the work
ers with facilities for parking their au-
tomobiles. AS for the rest of the work
ing population of the city, the policy
should be so firmly laid down as re-
cards the extension of present no-park-
ing Limits, and so clearly enunciated re-
garding the plans of the District GOV
ernmenC as to the garage business, that
private enterprise will not be deferred
by any uncertainty as to what the fu-
ture demands will be.
Everybody will agree with the Park
and Planning Commission as to the de-
STABILITY of adopting policy on park
ing. It should have been adopted long
ago. AS it is, nobody knows what plans,
if any, are under consideration by any
tody. There is an unwritten under
standing that the limited parking area,
now confined generally to the more
congested sections of the city, Will
eventually be extended. The extensions
already made have showed the all-day
parkers farther north and south, but
the congestion in the Ellipse and around
public buildings, such as the Capitol,
has aroused the ire of the Commission
of Fine Arts. But if there is any policy
| 1t should be thrown open for discussion
some effort should be made to find
whether private enterprise can be
counted on to furnish the public garage
space so notably lacking now, and, If
mot, a serious study given to such pro-
posals as that made by Assistant Corpo-
ration Counsel Roberts-that the mu-
nicipality go into the garage business
on its own hook.
The disappointing thing about the
Park and Planning Commission report
is the obvious fact that it can report
and report day in and day out without
obtaining very tangible results. The
commission has always" favored the
inclusion of garage space for automo-
bi!es in the Avenue Triangle group of
public buildings. But what Of it? The
McClintock report of 1880 made after
great study and discussion, recon-
mended a number of things regard
ing parking What was done with
that report? Can anybody remem-
ber what was in it? The Treasury,
at some expense, engaged National
Garages, Inc, to make detailed study
of the parking problem as it concerns
the new building program. The report
was made. 1t is large and fat. But the
Treasury officials have made only a
small portion of it public. The Depart
ment of Commerce Building is com
pIeted. Is 1t "self-contained" as TO
parking? The Department of Agricul-
ture eXtensible group is built, building
and planned-what about its parking
accommodations? The Avenue build
ings are soon to get under way. Can
the plans, at this late date, be changed
to solve the parking problem of each Of
them?
In the last analysis, Congress" says
the Planning Commission, is responsible
tor the adoption of parking policy for
the District And Congress should not
let this session pass without seeing to
it that some of the many agencies
which have a finger in the parking pie
are directed to formulate and TO carry
out a policy.