"Parking Craters" - The Effect of Surface Parking Lots on Downtowns

[JFman00]

How Parking Lots Became the Scourge of American Downtowns
"It's very hard for people to realize ... but this is the result of planning."

"Of the six cities we looked at, parking supplies in three cities just about leveled off after 1980. In the other three, parking supplies nearly doubled for a second time.

If the function of parking in these places was to enable growth and development, the data suggests they were abysmal failures. The number of people and jobs dropped by as much as 15 percent and the median family incomes fell by 20 to 30 percent in some places.  Today, these places still struggle to compete in their regions."

[IrvAdams]

Amazing how things have changed. That darling of freedom and transportation, the automobile, is now being seen as the purveyor of parking spaces and craters. No one saw this coming in the 50s as we all scattered to the four winds and suburbia.

When I was a child all shopping and entertainment was Downtown. Now there are suburban pockets and isolated large tracts of land belonging to this unique community or that, all promising a better lifestyle away from the hustle and bustle that's not really there anymore. We even moved the hustle and the bustle to Suburbia.

It's starting to implode on itself. It was inevitable.

[benfranklinbof]

Amazing how things have changed. That darling of freedom and transportation, the automobile, is now being seen as the purveyor of parking spaces and craters. No one saw this coming in the 50s as we all scattered to the four winds and suburbia.

When I was a child all shopping and entertainment was Downtown. Now there are suburban pockets and isolated large tracts of land belonging to this unique community or that, all promising a better lifestyle away from the hustle and bustle that's not really there anymore. We even moved the hustle and the bustle to Suburbia.

It's starting to implode on itself. It was inevitable.

I completely agree!