If this is a blue-sky scenario, I’m going with: space dedicated to growing food or producing power (like with solar pv between rows of crops that need some shade). This will call for minimal pathways to access some of the spaces, probably also water lines for irrigation, plus strategically placed keystone trees like oak and some fruit-producers as well
Agrivoltaics and multistrata agroforestry are super cool. I know this sub is primarily about sustainable urbanism, but I love me some sustainable pastoralism as well. I want a world with denser cities so we can make way for more nature and sustainable agriculture instead of endless sterile suburbs.
If it were up to me? I’d talk to local ecologists/climate scientists along with the local community who would be exposed to and/or utilizing that space and see what they felt was best for their area.
I currently live in a place that doesn’t have that many people parking, yet we still have a bajillion parking spaces. They tear down a perfectly good building and build a parking space, then proceed to make it seem like some great thing for the community when in reality it will be used by no one but drug dealers (in cars)
If you’re in the US or Canada (or maybe some other places as well), that’s likely a result if parking minimums. Climate Town has a really good and comprehensive video on them here. Essentially, the developers are legally required to build a certain minimum number of spots, based on the use of the building and the floor space. But these numbers are completely arbitrary, based on pseudoscience, and based on expectated max (as opposed to typical) usage. Buildings that existed before the laws were enacted in the mid 1900s were grandfathered in, but any substantial renovations or new developments require the developers to acquire neighboring properties and demolish them to satisfy the mandatory parking minimums.
The whole thing is truly insane and results in so much needless waste.
Makes sense, though in my case a lot of these parking lots are straight up built in the middle of nowhere, knowing that they serve no purpose.
Some are just way oversized as well, for instance, the capacity of grocery store parking lots far exceed the maximum number of inhabitants even if you have a single person per car. Absolutely insane.
A lot of empty lots in Denver get absolutely filled with prairie dogs already. They’re cute but also reproduce like mad with no natural predators in suburbia. We need more ferrets to eat them, they’re even more cute imo.
Naturally, this results in the entire surface of the Earth being transformed into racetrack. 5 to 10 year old boys take over the world due to pure enthusiasm, and banish all dinosaur and rocket lovers to the ocean.
I never understood the huge parking lots in the malls near where I grew up. I always thought “why not put in a garage?” It would use a 1/4 of the ground space and keep the same amount of parking and would leave room for more stores. But I like the idea of wildlife sanctuaries/parks replacing parking lots more than stores.
Definitely more expensive to build but I think most malls could get away with charging a small fee for parking. The amount of people who are addicted to shopping , it would pay for itself in no time.
Then they’d take the parking lot spaces from another buissenes next to the mall.
Parking garages are only worth it in high density spaces like middle of the City. But most malls and Walmarts aren’t in the middle of the City, they’re someplace outside where there’s enough space for as many parking lots as you want
Malls make you pay for parking either way, “free” parking doesn’t exist. The cost of building and maintaining the parking lot is recuperated from increasing prices.
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