Lutha Mahtin posted:

plz post about this

we have so much lovely parking in my town, especially downtown. i think it was even mentioned a few dozen pages back (minneapolis). there are a ton of these crappy surface lots with crumbling asphalt/concrete, ugly wastes of space that are bad for the environment, both the natural environment and the human one. they also must be incredibly profitable, because you can usually find a lot near your destination where you can park for literally nickels per hour. it seems like there are a lot of contributing factors to this status quo, though: the property tax system, mediocre public transportation, lingering effects and attitudes of white flight

the only other thing i really know about this issue is that sometimes businesses are required to provide parking, often regardless of how much parking there is in the area otherwise, or how much their customers even use cars. and there often isn't an upper limit to the requirement, or proper incentives to discourage over-building, so you end up with these huge asphalt seas that barely ever show any significant percentage of spaces filled.