Al Jazeera America Talks Parking Craters With Streetsblog

The term “parking crater” made its cable news debut last week, when I was invited to appear on Al Jazeera America’s “Real Money with Ali Velshi.” Here’s the segment that aired on the show.

Velshi wanted to discuss recent research out of the University of Connecticut showing how too much parking harms a city’s tax base. If Al Jazeera, owned by the Qatari royal family, can get serious about parking policy, then maybe there’s hope for American news outlets funded by car company advertising. We’re waiting for the call from Anderson Cooper.

4 thoughts on Al Jazeera America Talks Parking Craters With Streetsblog

  3. Excellent job, Angie!

    In my opinion, one of the most interesting comments was made by Mr. Velshi at around the 1:15 mark. He said:

    “I would have assumed that the market deals with that. I come from Toronto, which used to have a lot of surface parking lots, and now they are all condominiums… I assume that when that land becomes more valuable (then) becoming a condominium or an office building or housing that the market sort of dictates that it becomes that. But you’re saying that there is a public policy issue here.”

    Kevin’s comment:

    Poor Mr. Velshi. He comes from capitalistic Canada, where people believe in free enterprise and free markets. Now he has to get used to the USA, the land of government socialism for car drivers.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Parking Madness 2015: Can Your Parking Crater Compete?

By Angie Schmitt |
  March is a special month on Streetsblog. It’s the time when the nation’s worst downtown parking scars face off head-to-head for the shame of winning the “golden crater” — and the local publicity bonanza that comes with it. For the third year running, we’re asking you to help seed the bracket in our Parking […]

Parking Madness Final Four: Kansas City vs. Rochester

By Angie Schmitt |
The hunt for the worst parking crater on earth nears its epic conclusion with the second Final Four match of Parking Madness. Today’s matchup features a formidable entry from Kansas City and the upstart parking crater from Rochester, New York, which knocked out Detroit in the previous round. The winner will take on Jacksonville tomorrow for […]

Parking Madness 2015: Tampa vs. Waterville, Maine

By Angie Schmitt |
So far in round one of this year’s Parking Madness tourney, the parking crater in downtown Newport News, Virginia, knocked off the surface parking right by L.A.’s North Hollywood metro station, and the parking-scarred waterfront of Camden, New Jersey, beat out downtown Mobile and its carpet of parking lots. Today’s matchup pits sunny Tampa, Florida, […]

Parking Madness 2015: Asheville vs. Syracuse

By Angie Schmitt |
Only two spots remain in the Elite Eight of Streetsblog’s Parking Madness bracket. Yesterday, the parking fields by GM headquarters along the Detroit waterfront prevailed over the parking crater around the BART station in Bay Area suburb Walnut Creek. Today, Asheville, North Carolina, faces Rust Belt stalwart Syracuse. Asheville This entry comes to us from the fine folks at Kostelec Planning, […]