Paved Paradise - How Parking Explains the World

An entertaining, enlightening, and utterly original investigation into one of the most quietly influential forces in modern American life--the humble parking spot Parking, quite literally, has a death grip on America: each year a handful of Americans are tragically killed by their fellow citizens over parking spots. But even when we don’t resort to violence, we routinely do ridiculous things for parking, contorting our professional, social, and financial lives to get a spot. Indeed, in the century since the advent of the car, we have deformed--and in some cases demolished--our homes and our cities in a Sisyphean quest for cheap and convenient car storage. As a result, much of the nation’s most valuable real estate is now devoted exclusively to empty and idle vehicles, even as so many Americans struggle to find affordable housing. Parking determines the design of new buildings and the fate of old ones, patterns of traffic and the viability of transit, neighborhood politics and municipal finance, the quality of public space, and even the course of floodwaters. Can this really be the best use of our finite resources and space? Why have we done this to the places we love? Is parking These are the questions

Product details

• Authors: Henry Grabar
• Publisher: Penguin Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 09.05.2023
• EAN: 9781984881137
• ISBN: 978-1-984881-13-7
• No. of pages: 368
• Dimensions: 160 mm x 243 mm x 31 mm
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Development / Sustainable Development, Sustainability, TRANSPORTATION / Automotive / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban, Urban communities, Development economics & emerging economies, Development economics and emerging economies, Road & motor vehicles: general interest, Road and motor vehicles: general interest, Urban communities / city life