A closer look
Your city's housing shortage and endless seas of asphalt are more connected than they look. For decades, many places required new buildings to include a minimum number of parking spaces, even if residents owned few cars. Developers responded by spending fortunes on underground garages and huge surface lots, costs that quietly raised rents and shrank space for shops, parks, and smaller apartments. The strange result is neighborhoods where driving is the only realistic option, because everything is far apart and walking paths are unpleasant. Some cities are now reversing course, removing parking minimums and letting the market decide how many spaces are truly needed. Every empty lot you see near a transit line is a reminder that past rules baked car dependence into concrete.
