Screen shot 2014-09-25 at 9.33.59 AM

photo by Danny Fulgencio

It’s simple physics. In the Bishop Arts District on a Thursday-Saturday night, there are more cars than parking spaces.

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You could valet and tip the $5, although that doesn’t solve the overall excess of cars — valets still have to squeeze them in somewhere.

If you live in Winnetka Heights or Kings Highway, the easy answer to where to park, of course, is don’t park. Ride your bike or walk.

For our Elmwood, Oak Park Estates and Kiestwood neighbors, it’s a little too far to walk. Plus, some 3,000 upscale apartments are planned in West Dallas. Will all of those young professionals ride their bikes uphill to Bishop Arts? Maybe sometimes.

We asked politicians, real estate developers and neighbors how they would solve the parking problem in Bishop Arts, and we came up with two solutions.

1. Build a parking garage. If the land could be found and purchased, and a proposal made it past the nimbys and naysayers, who would pay for it? Parking garages are very expensive to build. Some say the city should pay for a Bishop Arts parking garage, perhaps with bond funding, and they could try to recoup the money by charging a fee to park during peak times. Others say the people who make the most money from Bishop Arts — landlords and business owners — should pool to pay for a garage.

2. Density and strategy. Creating more density in north Oak Cliff is another way to ease parking clusters. When there are more attractions than just Bishop Arts — for example, the Jefferson Tower, the Tyler/Davis area and the Oak Cliff Gateway — that spreads the people and cars around the neighborhood. Add to that some parking strategy. The city could stripe spaces in Bishop Arts a little tighter. And in Bishop Arts and the surrounding neighborhood, where so much of the overflow parking winds up, there could be limits to how long people are allowed to park. Putting two-hour or four-hour limits on parking allows enough time to eat and shop but turns over parking spaces faster. That also prevents Bishop Arts workers from parking in spaces that would be better used for customers. Employees could park further off site, and business owners could strategize on how to get employees to and from their cars safely.

Tell us: Do you think parking is a problem in Bishop Arts? How would you solve it? Comment below or email rstone@advocatemag.com with your suggestions.