Oddly sufficient, some cities have gone to such nice lengths to accommodate automobiles that they now have extra parking heaps than housing!
Town panorama throughout America reveals a startling truth: in lots of locations, there’s extra room for automobiles than for folks. From Seattle to Des Moines, the concrete sprawl of those heaps typically surpasses the house put aside for housing. This phenomenon isn’t simply an city planner’s nightmare; it’s an actual puzzle for anybody looking for a vibrant metropolis life amidst the huge concrete expanses.
A Concrete Jungle The place There’s Extra Parking Than Housing
Think about a metropolis the place automobiles have extra room to relaxation than folks do to stay. This isn’t a futuristic dystopia; it’s the fact in a number of U.S. cities the place parking heaps devour metropolis facilities. It seems now we have not solely sacrificed city vitality on the altar of comfort but additionally reworked downtowns into mere waypoints fairly than locations.
In cities like Seattle, the ratio of parking areas to housing items is staggering. Seattle boasts about 30 areas for each acre, overwhelming the variety of residential items 5 to at least one. Down in Des Moines, the situation will get extra dire with a parking-to-housing ratio of 20 to 1 per acre. These cities, famed for his or her ever-rising skyscrapers, surprisingly cater extra to automobiles than to residents.
The Parking Lot Takeover
The sprawl will get absurd whenever you head to locations like Arlington, Texas, or Detroit, Michigan—cities the place the automotive is king and the pedestrian is a pauper. Arlington’s metropolis heart dedicates a whopping 39% of its land to parking. Detroit, the famed Motor Metropolis, isn’t far behind, dedicating a few third of its downtown to automotive areas. These areas have turn into so optimized for automobiles that discovering anything to do can really feel like a scavenger hunt.
What’s the massive deal, you may ask? Past the apparent city blight, this sea of parking has profound implications. Metropolis facilities that prioritize parking over accessibility are likely to lack the density that makes city areas vibrant and walkable. The end result? Cities which can be simple to drive to however not price staying in. Furthermore, this extra of concrete slabs drives up actual property costs, making city housing scarcer and dearer.
A Shift Towards Extra Livable Cities
Regardless of these challenges, not all cities have succumbed to the parking plague. Washington, D.C., and San Francisco are main by instance, with solely 4% and three% of their downtown areas dedicated to public parking, respectively. New York Metropolis tops the record with a mere 0.4% of midtown Manhattan given over to parking areas.
This pattern hints at a future the place cities reclaim house from automobiles for folks. As extra People decide out of driving—due to the rise of ride-sharing, public transit enhancements, and maybe quickly, autonomous automobiles—the demand for huge parking heaps is ready to lower. This shift presents a golden alternative for cities to rework automotive heaps into parks, housing, and vibrant public areas that foster group fairly than automotive storage.
Supply: “These U.S. Cities Have Extra Parking Heaps Than Housing” — Atlas Obscura
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