These U.S. Cities Have More Parking Lots Than Housing - They paved paradise again and again and again.
by Frank Jacobs, Big Think May 17, 2024
"...On average, about one-fifth of all land in city centers is dedicated to parking. But what’s the actual harm being done by all that parking space? For one, city centers that are more “parkable” become less walkable. In other words, fewer things are casually accessible.
...Americans’ attitude toward driving is changing. The share of high school seniors with a driving license has dropped from 85.3% in 1996 to 71.5% in 2015. The rise of shared, multi-modal, and (soon, they keep promising us) autonomous mobility will further reduce the need for driver’s licenses, individual cars, and massive parking facilities in city centers.
Perhaps it’s time for American cities to become denser, more lived-in, more walkable—and less “parkable.”
I'm taking the Amtrak's Vermonter into NYC. The ride goes back and forth between wetland, rivers, and urban decay. It's beautiful and depressing all at the same time. #Amtrak#landscape#landuse
"The Amazon rain forest is not virgin forest--rather it is a vast garden, cultivated by Indigenous people."
YES!
Europeans, used to a European model of land usage, arrived in the Western Hemisphere and didn't recognize that the woodlands and grasslands of North America and the rain forests of South America were not wildernesses, but managed lands.
“There was only the enormous, empty prairie, with grasses blowing in waves of light and shadow across it, and the great blue sky above it, and birds flying up from it and singing with joy because the sun was rising. . .” —Laura Ingalls Wilder
#Kativik Regional Govt adopted a plan giving it greater control over the way non-Inuit organizations use land in #Nunavik.
A new bylaw approved by regional council Tuesday is a legally enforceable tool regional government can use to oversee activities happening across the region.
It provides KRG the authority to enforce a cleanup at a company’s cost if environmental contaminants are left behind.
The bylaw applies to non-Inuit-beneficiary land users.
While the particular details of this article might be different today (a couple years later), the content is incredibly relevant. Our cities need to push harder to reduce motor vehicle lanes/parking, make buses even more reliable, improve safety for people biking and walking…
"Globally, up to 40% of #land is now degraded, according to the #UNCCD."
It's time to stop using what we have already converted in ways that degrade it further, and perhaps stop converting what is still well protected. #landuse#erosion#food#climatechange#desertification