Except not really.
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According to Parking Reform Network, 25.8% (a terrible number) of Houston's downtown land is used for off-street parking, whether surface lots or multi-level garages.
That places Houston at
number 41 on their list of 102 cities ordered by least to most land used for off-street parking.
https://parkingreform.org/resources/parking-lot-map/
These are all the cities listed as "worse" than Houston:
Bakersfield, Jacksonville, Hartford, Des Moines, Atlanta, Charlotte, St. Louis, Lincoln, Memphis, Columbus, Providence, Indianapolis, Knoxville, Toledo, Allentown, Dallas, Aurora.C, Henderson, NV, Newark, St. Petersburg, McAllen, Grand Rapids, Raleigh, Rochester, Dayton, Tampa, Albany, San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Sarasota, Fort Worth, Kansas City, Buffalo, Harrisburg, Fort Myers, Louisville, Birmingham, Detroit, Tulsa, Greensboro, Mesa, AZ, Orlando, Albuquerque, Anaheim, Corpus Christi, Baton Rouge, Las Vegas, Riverside, Little Rock, New Haven, Fresno, Anchorage, Worcester, Melbourne, FL, Wichita, Virginia Beach, Columbia, Lexington, Arlington, TX, San Juan, San Bernardino
Here are some of the larger or more interesting (to my mind) cities listed above with their percentages included. I've highlighted those that I find most interesting.
Atlanta 26%
Charlotte 26%
St. Louis 27%
Memphis 27%
Columbus 27%
Providence 27%
Indianapolis 27%
Dallas 27.3%
Newark 28%
Tampa 29%
San Antonio 29%
Salt Lake City 29%
Fort Worth 29%
Kansas City 29%
Buffalo 30%
Detroit 31%
Tulsa 31%
Orlando 33%
Albuquerque 33%
Anaheim 33%
Corpus Christi 33%
Baton Rouge 33%
Las Vegas 33%
Worcester, MA 35%
Wichita 35%
Arlington, TX 39%
San Juan 41%
San Bernardino 49%
The widespread misbelief among many amateur urbanists, especially those less skilled in critical thinking, that Houston's downtown is nothing but a sea of surface parking has been, I believe, propagated by the use on some urbanist websites and YouTube channels of a certain infamous photo taken almost a half-century ago.
Here's the photo in question along with a photo from 2023.
"Downtown Houston at Dawn" - Art Wager
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/p...&adppopup=true
I know most on this forum know better, but it's still interesting to see where Houston really falls in the list from best-to-worst.
</RANT>