It’s ON! Parking Madness 2014 Kicks Off With Chicago vs. Denver

Are you ready for Parking Madness 2014, our second annual search for parking craters that have obliterated cities? You better be.

Last year, Tulsa took home the Golden Crater. In this year's tournament, we broadened the field to accept entries from outside the United States. Perhaps not surprisingly, American parking craters still dominated the reader submissions, but one international contestant will be facing off this year: Calgary, Alberta. Canada's first entrant is up against some truly gruesome competition.

Our first matchup is Chicago vs. Denver. It's your job to decide which parking crater is the most awful, life-sapping blight on its city.

Here's the evidence, beginning with Chicago:

Nice job creating a "fun" atmosphere around your basketball and hockey arena, Chicago! Notice how in this Google Maps view, about 95 percent of the spaces are empty, which is surely the case every day there is not an event.

Bruce G., who submitted this photo, says if you understand the context, it's even worse than it looks. "The United Center is fewer than two miles from Chicago's Loop, which puts this land within easy biking or walking distance from scores of downtown train stations, offices, and shopping destinations." Fail!

Okay. Now let's compare to Denver, a city we acknowledged last year for healing some of its worst downtown parking scars. Apparently, there's more work to do:

Aren't lonely little buildings surrounded by parking the saddest thing you've ever seen? And what a beautiful house too! Imagine what the neighborhood used to be like.

This area of Denver is called Court Place, and the submitter, Leighton Walter, called this block "tragic," although he acknowledged the good work the city has done to repair a lot of similar places.

Which city should advance to the next round? It's on you to decide. Vote below!

[poll id="56"]