Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World

by Henry Grabar

One reason that Americans retain such nostalgia for college is that it was the only time in our lives so much was within walking distance. We take our vacations to places where we can get out of the car—Charleston, Disneyland, Manhattan, Miami Beach, Rome. Housing prices reflect the desirability of such destinations, making anything but a brief stay off-limits to all but a moneyed few. The promise of this book—the promise of fixing the parking problem—is not to force the reader out of her car but to let her forget it now and then for a moment. In a world with better parking it would be easier, not harder, to find a spot, and much easier to live in a place where you would not need to drive quite so often. In a world with better parking kids could walk to school and grown-ups to the grocery store. In a world with better parking, there might be fewer places to park, but in place of those old parking spots would emerge a city so much richer and fuller and fairer that you would not think twice about what had been lost.