Willoughby Park Parking in Downtown Brooklyn

Streetsblog says of Willoughby Square Park, if you want to "inhale more exhaust on your way to the park, Downtown Brooklyn's next green space is for you."

Parked cars don't emit exhaust. However, riding round and round looking for a parking space does. According to the EPA, the average car emits 19.4 lbs of carbon dioxide per gallon. So, the less we ride around aimlessly, the better. Underground parking garages allow us to zip right in and shut our cars off.

Willoughby Park will cover 1.5 acres and support many trees. According to Colorado Tree Coalition, "A single mature tree can absorb carbon dioxide at a rate of 48 lbs./year and release enough oxygen back into the atmosphere to support 2 human beings."

Streetsblog further states, "These days, the city seems intent on combining its development and public space plans with the storage of congestion-causing, streetlife-suffocating private vehicles, even in incredibly transit-rich downtown Brooklyn."

Frustration with current gas-guzzling, air-polluting cars is warranted. We need alternative energy vehicles like electric cars or at least hybrids. We cannot mandate that everyone use public transportation over private vehicles. People have personal preferences or reasons for driving and this is America, a land where people have individual rights.

The best we can do until the auto industry provides the public with affordable, alternative energy cars is compromise. Everything in life is a trade-off.

Given the city's rezoning and development plan for downtown Brooklyn, there will be more cars. And given the choice between drivers riding around searching for parking spaces or pulling into a parking garage, I'll take the parking garage. I'll also take Willoughby Park with its life-sustaining trees.

Someday soon, hopefully, we'll be parking electric cars under Willoughby Park.

Till next time, downtown B.

Sources:

Noah Kazis, "NYCEDC Building a Park(ing Lot) for Downtown Brooklyn," Streetsblog
EPA, "Emission Facts: Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle," EPA
Colorado Tree Coalition, "Benefits of Trees In Urban Areas"