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.
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.
FULL STORY: Lansing Is Your 2018 Parking Madness Champion!
Watch: How to Remove Thousands of Parking Spaces
What the city of Amsterdam will gain by removing cars from on-street parking space.
2019 'Parking Madness' Shows How Much Has Changed
Streetsblog USA's annual showcase of the worst examples of car-oriented land use this year focused on places that had overcome the worst excesses of 20th century planning.
'Parking Madness' With a Twist
Streetsblog USA has launched its annual "parking madness" competition that has shamed the nation's worst parking crater for six years now. This year, however, the award will go to a former parking crater.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association