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.
Angie Schmitt shares the results of the Parking Madness 2019 competition on Streetsblog USA, and Providence has won the "Golden Crater" award "for its decades-long effort to reclaim its public spaces from cars."
Astute observers will recall that Schmitt announced the Parking Madness 2019 with a crucial twist: instead of shaming cities with parking craters like in previous years, this year's Parking Madness would celebrate the best examples of former parking lots that have been transformed into places far more attractive, human, and healthy.
"Many cities made a strong claim to the crown, but Providence’s Capitol Hill area had the best story," according to Schmitt. "Back in the mid part of the last century, the Rhode Island Statehouse area was surround by an absolute moat of grey, lifeless asphalt." Now the area includes 'over one million square feet of retail space, 2 to 2.5 million square feet of office space, 1,000 hotel rooms, 500 residential units, 10,000 permanent jobs,' according to an expert cited in the article.
FULL STORY: Your Parking Madness 2019 Champion: Providence
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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.
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