It is astonishing that the idea of hiding a 300-space underground parking garage underneath Rash Field has taken this long to emerge. Better late than never, though, because this proposal makes eminent sense.
The Inner Harbor along Key Highway, from Locust Point to the Maryland Science Center, is changing. The American Visionary Art Museum is under construction, the Baltimore Museum of Industry is expanding and the second stage of the HarborView high-rise complex is on the drawing board. Key Highway itself is being resurfaced.
As these projects progress, the south side of the harbor is certain to receive crowds of tourists that have previously ignored the area. Parking will be even more scarce than it is now.
A 300-space facility underneath Rash Field would alleviate some of the current crunch and provide convenient parking for visitors to the American Visionary Art Museum.
In the long-run, though, it will not be enough. More parking must be secured in new buildings that will be constructed along Key Highway.
The future of Rash Field has been under study for more than a year. When the sports field was completed 20 years ago (with seating for 4,000 spectators), it won plaudits. In the beginning, it was in heavy and varied use. Festivals and concerts were held there, so were soccer matches and practices.
But as the years went by, it became a big question mark. Was that space really well used? How should it be redeveloped? Those questions still await a final answer.
The beauty of the underground garage proposal is that since the parking spaces will be hidden, the roof could be used for almost any conceivable purpose. There is nothing extraordinary about this kind of arrangement.
There are two parking garages south of the U.S. House Office Buildings on Washington's Capitol Hill that have parks atop them. Yet another example is Union Square in San Francisco, which has a parking garage underneath.
As Baltimore City officials consider redoing Rash Field, building the parking garage should be the first priority. What happens to the park portion can be decided at a later time. Since the estimated $1 million price tag of the garage can be financed through revenue bonds and easily recouped over time from parking revenues, the Rash Field underground facility is an idea whose time has come.