Paved Paradise - How Parking Explains the World

Named one of the best books of the year by “ Consistently entertaining and often downright funny.” -- “Wry and revelatory.” -- -- 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

About the author

Henry Grabar is a staff writer at Slate who writes about housing, transportation, and urban policy. He has contributed to The Atlantic, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal, and was the editor of the book The Future of Transportation. He received the Richard Rogers Fellowship from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and was a finalist for the Livingston Award for excellence in national reporting by journalists under thirty-five.

Product details

• Authors: Henry Grabar
• Publisher: Penguin Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 07.05.2024
• EAN: 9781984881151
• ISBN: 978-1-984881-15-1
• No. of pages: 368
• Dimensions: 137 mm x 213 mm x 18 mm
• Subjects: 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