I feel that there is a way for us as planners to *both* admit fault in planners as experts AND provide technical assistance through our role as mediators to ultimately enable builders who want to park less to do so, to do so more quickly, and to do so with our backing.

To do so, I would posit may:
a) equity: allow novice / small developers more chance at initial success
b) lean urbanism: give the bank a number to point at
c) advocacy: introduce macro societal pressures to park less (say the planner as to advocate for community air quality)

2) If we posit that "the answer" to optimal parking is builder intuition and experience. Then shouldn't planners as mediators coordinate, synthesize, and index the works of *many* developers in *many* projects (perhaps alongside organizations like ULI) to allow for more rapid improvements?

The bankers, the professionally cautious, (perhaps in their little secret checklist) say: the project needs [some/more] parking. This makes sense as the banks have less to gain but equal risk.

A topic which I believe to be the subject of this paper. However, I hesitant to concede two points.

1) My own discussions with builders, even those say that have found favor to logical arguments of opportunity costs and actual costs of additional parking spaces to be convincing...

Thank you Patrick.

I see the logic here, I really do: taking away the 'safe wam (if incorrect!) blanket' that is min. parking requirements in a way forces builders out into the 'real world.' A place where their intuition and experiences perform better than those former min. parking requirements.

It warmed this old heart.

Thanks

Could this be messaging more than policy?

Parking maximums may in providing a count (unintentionally) steer developers toward that count.

But I could also see a world where soft power through bureaucratic hoops like justification provision or robust technical assistance produces less parking.

Time stamp?
It just opened the whole episode for me.

What has more impact: removing minimum parking mandates or imposing maximums? In some places, researchers have found that removing minimums had FAR MORE EFFECT on the number of parking spaces built than imposing maximums. Consider #London.🧵

This is what abundance looks like.

Are there other methods from abroad?

"The mixed appetisers at the best restaurant consist of a heap of battered and deep-fried cauliflower florets, a mound of deep-fried cheese sticks and a pile of potatoes slathered in melted cheese. The next course might be a vast platter of southern-fried chicken."

"NO ONE goes hungry at Dollywood. The cake stands at Dolly's theme park in TN sell slices of apple pie that weigh 3 lbs each, and that's before you bury them in ice cream."

Apple pie.

"People do not fly to Dollywood; they drive there in big cars full of squabbling children. East-coast accents, let alone foreign ones, are rare. The park is thus an excellent window on what people in this part of the American heartland like."

Front cover of 'Housing the People of Leicester: a History of Social Housing in Leicester 1900-2000'

I'm very pleased to have received my copy of Ned Newitt's thoroughly researched and finely illustrated history of social housing in Leicester. I recommend it not just to locals but to anyone interested in our housing history. waterstones.com/book/housing...

Donate to Rollin Horton Show your support with a contribution.

Rollin Horton, a councilmember in Nashville. Recently passed a great pro-housing bill for his district.

An Anti-housing group is attempting to recall him. You can donate to fight the recall here👇.
#YIMBY

secure.actblue.com/donate/teamh...

🎃 And the halloween costume was made. 🎃⤵️

👀

When bike/ped/transit advocates succeed in implementing smart parking reforms, we save people a great deal of time! After #Berkeley implemented performance-based parking prices, motorists saved thousands of hours that they used to spend circling, frustrated, in search of curb parking.

3) @Waymo in front construction site. Flagger waves the @Waymo through to cross the double yellow.

@Waymo goes THE OTHER WAY onto the shoulder, endangering everyone involved.

We need for ways to better communicate with them, real time.

I've also since had a no. of unable to communicate with 'driver' interactions.

1) @Waymo double parked- blocking me in for 20 min in waiting for pick up.

2) As a biker, I have had them wait / drop off in the bike lane and I couldn't tell them to move - i almost had to bail (2/3)

No car, have ridden.

Until a couple months ago, hyper favorable of Waymo as they always stop for me x-ing the street with my doggo. Courteous.

1 wknd awhile back they suddenly were very aggressive. Hard breaking. Jerk acceleration. 😬

Now I'm cautious. We need strict registration (1/2).

Day ominous-ing

Stefanos Polyzoides: Seven Fountains - West Hollywood

First new traditional style courtyard-style apartments in 75 years. 4 courtyards and 7 fountains adjacent to the Sunset Strip. 20 units with double height living rooms, private gardens, and live/work space.

mparchitects.com/architecture...

North of Downtown San Antonio, TX
1,350-acre connects w/ historic River Walk, form-based code, and walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods.

-Broadway hwy -> ped. + new streetcar lane
-n'hood parks and plazas + performing arts district
-major new park fronting San Antonio Museum of Art
-historic renewal

Stefanos Polyzoides: surface parking lots and dying mall becomes 6,321 housing units and 512k square feet of pedestrian-oriented retail.

mparchitects.com/urbanism/mon...

Absolute masterpiece from Stefanos Polyzoides's Playa Vista development in Mar Vista. A Rosseta Stone of housing that predates @danielparolek.bsky.social's Missing Middle Housing.

"Housing is really urbanism."

"In 2020, [Portland, OR] approved building [middle housing] on lots zoned for single family homes... A new report from the City says, it's working. 1,400 new units built in just a few years and each one is $300,000 less expensive than a typical single family home." @nbcnews.com