Parking lot madness

[DetroitPlanner]

Detroit does not even make the top 16 in downtowns destroyed by parking lots.

http://dc.streetsblog.org/2013/03/28...n/#more-136446

Oh the humanity!

[iheartthed]

Detroit does not even make the top 16 in downtowns destroyed by parking lots.

http://dc.streetsblog.org/2013/03/28...n/#more-136446

Oh the humanity!

Wonder what's the criteria. Detroit's certainly no Houston but it absolutely deserves to be there over Philly and Jersey City.

[313WX]

The "contenders" were reader-submitted.

That explains it all right there.

Either not many Detroiters read those type of blogs or not many of those people have visited Detroit.

[Wesley Mouch]

Is Houston still the largest city without zoning? Been a few years, but I found it vibrant and diverse.

Detroit isn't a wasteland of parking. Sure, the ballpark parking behind the Fox is that, but its about the only one I can think of. Campus Martius area was.

[313WX]

Is Houston still the largest city without zoning? Been a few years, but I found it vibrant and diverse.

Detroit isn't a wasteland of parking. Sure, the ballpark parking behind the Fox is that, but its about the only one I can think of. Campus Martius area was.

Don't forget the area west of the Financial District [[McNamara Building, Old MGM, Fort-Shelby, etc.).

And also the area just NW and west of Greektown.

You could probably count the Cass Corridor as well [[depending on your definition of "downtown.").

[Wesley Mouch]

Don't forget the area west of the Financial District [[McNamara Building, Old MGM, Fort-Shelby, etc.).

And also the area just NW and west of Greektown.

You could probably count the Cass Corridor as well [[depending on your definition of "downtown.").

How could these not come to mind!? But frankly except for the former Campus Martius area, these are all peripheral.

I think Detroit is nowhere near the top of the tear down paradise list.

[Gorath]

Is Houston still the largest city without zoning? Been a few years, but I found it vibrant and diverse.

While Huston doesn't have zoning in the sense of this area is residential, this area is commercial and that area is for industry. Houston still has land use regulations controlling such things as minimum lot sizes, minimum parking requirements, and setbacks. Which are the things that many argue promote sprawl.

[313WX]

Detroit's not near the top [[though if you compare to to the top 15 metros, it's likely in the top 5), but to say Philly or even Minneapolis has more surface parking than Detroit is also false.

[DetroitPlanner]

While Huston doesn't have zoning in the sense of this area is residential, this area is commercial and that area is for industry. Houston still has land use regulations controlling such things as minimum lot sizes, minimum parking requirements, and setbacks. Which are the things that many argue promote sprawl.

There are areas of houston where you do get some very odd land uses with small factories in the middle of newer residential neighborhoods and weird stuff like that. Houston is the largest City like this in the US. Economic return is probably the biggest reason why something locates where it does in Houston. This means that land use is more impacted by economic forces than anything else.

[canuck]

Here's a song on the subject from our shared canadian-american landscapologist singer songwriter; Joni Mitchell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94bdMSCdw20

[DetroitPlanner]

Some of those cities really had no reason for being in there. It is interesting however that a few blocks in Philly is seen as a big hole, but you compare that to other places and it is nothing really.

[Hermod]

The problem exists where land has more value as a parking lot than with a building on it.

[AuburnSpeedster]

I currently live in Minneapolis and the downtown here has much less parking lots than downtown Detroit for sure! Those two should have been switched

[wolverine]

While swaths of parking certainly exist in Detroit, the ability of infilling the core is much easier since it tends to be more of a patchwork. It's not like you are trying to create something out nothing in a 9 block area of asphalt.

San Bernardino certainly dug it's own grave. What a sh*thole. Glad our younger generation today is a much more sensible group of people when it comes to planning compared to folks in the profession decades ago.

Now we are left to clean up their liabilities as strip malls and enclosed shopping centers go vacant.

[iheartthed]

Memphis is another city that deserves to be on that list. Actually, Memphis probably deserves the top spot. It's pretty sickening to see how they destroyed their downtown.

[antongast]

The problem exists where land has more value as a parking lot than with a building on it.

No doubt this is sometimes the case, and it's probably more commonly the case in a place like Detroit where property values are very depressed anyway, but it's also very often the case that parking is oversupplied to comply with regulations even when the land would be worth more with a building on it.

We estimate the marginal values of parking and lot area with spatial methods using a large data set from the Los Angeles area non-residential property sales and find that for most of the property types the marginal value of parking is significantly below that of the parcel area. This evidence supports the contention that minimum parking requirements significantly increase the amount of parcel area devoted to parking.

[louis]

i know Anchorage is not a major city, however it would easily be the number one spot if it was listed

[old guy]

Some of those cities really had no reason for being in there. It is interesting however that a few blocks in Philly is seen as a big hole, but you compare that to other places and it is nothing really.

When I saw Milwaukee in the top 8, I had to think this whole survey was skewed.
The parking area in question is large, but it's between the Third Ward Historical District, which is one of the nicest areas in the city with some crime but unique and well worth visiting, and the lakefront.
The lakefront in that area is home to Summerfest grounds which is a 14 day festival during the summer and great ethnic festivals from spring till fall.

To the north of it is the 794 expressway and the Amtrak station and rail lines. It also provides parking for the Milwaukee Produce Market, Milwaukee Public Market, Lakeshore State Park, Marcus Amphitheater and the Broadway Theatre Center.
It's mixed with numerous vertical parking garages, retail space and vertical housing complexes. The vertical parking is growing quickly and replacing parking lots, providing more valuable retail and living space. Not a very comprehensive survey IMO.

[DetroitPlanner]

While swaths of parking certainly exist in Detroit, the ability of infilling the core is much easier since it tends to be more of a patchwork. It's not like you are trying to create something out nothing in a 9 block area of asphalt.

20-25 years ago the area around the River North area of Chicago [[Rock and Roll McDonalds and the Hard Rock) in Chicago were also a sea of parking lots. The ecology of cities change over time based upon its economy.

I bet it takes some folks by surprise to see such low density sprawly type estabilshments in the middle of a bustling urban area like it is today, but this area was definitely more like the area behind the Fox then.

[Eber Brock Ward]

Yeah, that whole area with the Portillos, Rainforest, and Mickey D's is awful.

[[but I'd gladly take something like that in our empty lots here )

[Detroitnerd]

In the 1950s, Lewis Mumford called Greensboro, N.C. "parking lot city" ... I wonder how it and other mid-size cities would stack up scientifically against parking in larger cities.