The Cure for Ailing Parking Lots
In Portland, up to 400 food stands have sprung up around the city, enlivening underused spaces.
Philip Langdon of New Urban News tours Portland's popular food "carts" - which aren't really carts at all, but small stands. Langdon reports that the carts not only activate dead spaces in the city, they also provide jobs and micro-businesses for a community that suffers from low employment.
Langdon writes, "The explosive growth of food carts runs counter to the usual trend in urban regeneration. Typically when a city center becomes a place where middle- and upper-middle-class people want to spend time, the architectural code of conduct becomes more formal, more carefully constructed. Food carts, with their budget-driven, ad hoc designs, take a city in the opposite direction."
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Good remedy
This is a good remedy for enlivening dead spaces like parking lots. And it encourages entrepreneurialism.