Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Parking Madness 2015

Parking Madness 2015: Nashville vs. Amarillo

We're moving on to the fourth match of Parking Madness 2015, and the competition is getting intense. So far, parking craters in Tampa, Camden, and Newport News have advanced to the Elite Eight.

Both of today's contestants could give those quarterfinalists a run for their money. Watch out as Nashville battles Amarillo for a chance at the "honor" of winning the Golden Crater.

Nashville

nashville_crater

This entry comes to us from Margaret Harbaugh, who explains:

Midtown Nashville, a sea of parking around a hospital cluster. Some of these rooftops are multi-story parking garages.

I just took this as a tourist to Nashville a couple weeks ago -- I was staying at a hotel across the street from Vanderbilt University and was shocked at the sea of parking lots I had for a view, the traffic jams and tangle of freeways through the city, and the stories I'd read on Streetsblog that the city's politicians had just decided against new transit. Seemed pretty ironic that there's a hospital in the middle of all this -- it's not exactly a healthy way to live!

There was a ton of infill development underway in Nashville, Taylor Swift had just bought a penthouse condo around the corner, plenty of buzz around, so I'm hopeful the city will develop in a more walkable way.

Extra points for proximity to Taylor Swift! Doubt we'll ever see this on her Instagram feed:

nashville_crater_axon

Nashville is going up against one of those parking monsters that seems to have swallowed an entire downtown...

Amarillo

amarillo_straight

Submitter Nick Sortland says:

Amarillo has one sad center for a city, which according to [Wikipedia] has always had steady population growth, but strangely a very-much dying urban center. I went there once to visit relatives, and all that I can remember is that it was large, flat, and brown. Even when coming from Fargo, ND, Amarillo made that look like a green lush paradise compared to the hard dirt of the Texas panhandle.

There is a funny thing about the part of the country from around Tulsa down through this part of Texas: it all looks burnt to hell by the sun in 45 degree view, street level retail is almost completely absent, and the traffic engineers have been kind enough to redesign nearly every road into a one-way for maximum efficiency, which almost certainly assures maximum pedestrian bleakness.

I don't know if this is some kind of hold over from the prior rancher attitudes of these places, with a desire for your own private land to defend to the death in a shootout, but these places all seem incredibly dead, with a huge absence of any kind of public space.

Interesting commentary. But downtown Amarillo wasn't always this way, and some people are trying to fix it. There's just a lot that needs fixing:

downtown_amarillo
parking_madness_2015

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Friday Video: Are We All Living in a ‘Carspiracy’?

How does "car-brain" shape the way we think about the world — even in relatively bike-friendly countries like the U.K.?

July 26, 2024

Friday’s Headlines Share and Share Alike

Bikeshares, and e-bikes and scooters generally, are becoming more popular. That's led to more injuries, highlighting the need for better infrastructure.

July 26, 2024

What the Heck is Going on With the California E-Bike Incentive Program?

The program's launch has been delayed for two years, and currently "there is no specific timeline" for it. Plus the administrator, Pedal Ahead, is getting dragged, but details are vague.

July 26, 2024

Talking Headways Podcast: Have Cities Run Out of Land?

Chris Redfearn of USC and Anthony Orlando of Cal Poly Pomona on why "pro-business" Texas housing markets are catching up to "pro-regulation" California and what it might mean for future city growth.

July 25, 2024

The Paris Plan for Olympic Traffic? Build More Bike Lanes

A push to make Paris fully bikable for the Olympics is already paying dividends long before the opening ceremonies.

July 25, 2024
See all posts