And the Parking Crater Award Goes To…

One of the biggest days of the year on the urbanism calendar took place on April 20. No, not marijuana day—the awarding of the Golden Crater award to the winner of Streetsblog's annual Parking Madness competition.

1 minute read

April 24, 2018, 6:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Streetsblog USA has awarded the 2018 Golden Crater Award to Lansing, Michigan.

The award resulted from a "Parking madness" bracket that pitted "16 ugly asphalt wastelands overrun by surface parking" against each other in a winner-take-all tournament to see which city has the biggest, baddest parking crater.

Angie Schmitt describes the scale of the parking crater that emerged victorious from this year's competition.

In the true spirit of Parking Madness, Lansing’s parking crater stretches out for acres in the middle of town. While there’s a healthier downtown area east of the state capitol, make no mistake: This is a large, center city employment cluster where surface parking has metastasized to an outrageous extent.

There's a method to this parking madness, however. As noted by Schmitt, last year's Golden Crater winner, Denver, is moving toward developing the site of its ignominious victory.

Friday, April 20, 2018 in Streetsblog USA

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