At the change of a light, a seemingly endless line of cars begin their prowl. They are on the prowl for the best parking spot. If, during this first rush, they are unable to find a spot, the cars will be relegated to a parking garage far away from their intended destination. Although this may seem like something out of a big city, this is a regular day in the Carmel Arts and Design District. With a recent estimate from the U.S. census bureau Carmel’s estimated population is 92,198, so it is not a surprise that its downtown is getting very crowded. Yet, as someone who has experienced parking in most of the major cities in the United States, what was once a suburb seems to be changing its downtown to become more urban.

Valet parking, courtesy of the restaurant Anthony’s Chophouse, which opened on Aug. 13, is now part of Main Street. Two underground parking garages near Main Street also add to the urban feel of Carmel downtown. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with any of these parking situations, Carmel has definitely moved away from the small town feel that it once held. Although I understand that the city can not and may not want to move back to it roots as a small suburb, it currently does not seem to have enough infrastructure to deal with more parking pressure. For example, if more restaurants like Anthony’s Chophouse start to move into Main Street, street parking will become even more limited and coveted. The parking garages probably will be able to handle this overflow, but these garages aren’t well integrated into the Carmel Arts and Design District.

I believe, a solution for this would be to have almost a quasi storefront that leads out from the parking garages. I have seen this in a couple of big cities and it seems to work because it really integrates the parking garages into the urban life of a downtown area. It allows even far away parking garages to feel close and easily accessible. Overall, although I feel that parking is one indicator of Carmel losing much of its small town feel, I feel that Carmel hasn’t really found itself as a large city yet, and currently lies in an in-between state that doesn’t really work or function as it should. One way that the city’s downtown can really become more urban and plan for the introduction of new parking problems is through an integrated parking system that allows the parking garages off of Main Street to function as they should.