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Which surface parking lots in your city (or any city) would you consider a complete waste of space. I know that this has been an issue in American cities for decades now, but I believe that its getting better. Still, there's some lots that are bigger offenders than others.
Here's some examples:
Milwaukee, WI // Never been here, but I was playing around on google maps and this parking lot gave me the whole idea of this thread. It seems like such a waste of space! https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0374...7i16384!8i8192
Saying poorly placed parking lots in U.S. downtowns is redundant.
The downtown area of a city should have no visible surface parking lots whatsoever. It should all be either structured parking, or at absolute worst hidden behind an alley and screened from the pedestrian experience.
Saying poorly placed parking lots in U.S. downtowns is redundant.
The downtown area of a city should have no visible surface parking lots whatsoever. It should all be either structured parking, or at absolute worst hidden behind an alley and screened from the pedestrian experience.
My point exactly. While they shouldn't be downtown, they are in mass quantities all across the nation. Basically everywhere but Manhattan has them.
Saying poorly placed parking lots in U.S. downtowns is redundant.
The downtown area of a city should have no visible surface parking lots whatsoever. It should all be either structured parking, or at absolute worst hidden behind an alley and screened from the pedestrian experience.
I think the worst surface parking lot in Downtown Pittsburgh would have to be the one directly across Grant Street from the City-County Building. Would you agree?
The most infamous one in Philadelphia is at 8th and Market streets, which is collequally referred to as the Disney Hole" after Disney Quest scrapped expansion plans in the 2000s. But the lot dates to the early 1980s following the demolition of Gimbel's. The lots extends all the way to the next blocks (9th, Chestnut) on both sides.
There are also several surface lots surrounding the Chinatown station on the BSL spur, with the 800 blocks in particular once again being the main culprit. A big waste of TOD space. And there's another one at 12th and Race right behind Philly's convention center. IMO the new 76ers arena would be better placed in the superblock between Vine, Race, 8th, and about midway between 9th and 10th streets. It's not quite as central as the 10th and Market site, but I find arenas to be better placed toward the fringes of downtown, and you still have HRT for this proposal and a reasonable walk for commuter rail. You can also advertise on the Vine st. side for the I-676 traffic as well.
Some cities offhand I can think of--although there are many--are these:
Dallas, TX
Phoenix, AZ
Perhaps it's semantics, but cities don't "place" parking lots like in a game of sim city. These are private property and it's the choice of the landowner whether or not to develop that property. Even in a downtown with high real estate prices, sometimes landowners choose to hold out on development in speculation that land value will go up in the future.
In Austin there is one particular grifter ("World Class Capital") that owns a bunch of property in prime locations only to let it sit there and rot. There isn't much the city can do about beyond charge property tax (and the property tax is depressed by the fact that the lot has only land value and not much if any structure value).
Paid parking is often a good way to make just enough cash flow to cover property tax while speculating on future land value.
Last edited by whereiend; 12-13-2022 at 10:27 AM..
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