Downtown Parking Lot Maps

[AusHou]

The problem, Photolitherland, is not that you make invalid points overall. You have legitimate concerns. But you have shown that you sometimes don't have a good command of the facts. Your posts are often exaggerations, including some of these in this thread.

While I hate, as you do, that some of the old neighborhoods have been lost, there are very large expanses of neighborhoods close to downtown that are still there and even better than before.

[photoLith]

^
Which neighborhoods other than the Heights?

[AusHou]

Originally Posted by photolitherland

^
Which neighborhoods other than the Heights?

Did you miss Shasta's recent post?

[photoLith]

^
Of course I saw that, and my argument was that many of the neighborhoods directly surrounding downtown, especially those just north, east, and south of downtown have been greatly impacted and no longer exist or are ghettos, which they are. And yes, a few blocks of torn down neighborhoods have recently been turned into new low rise condos/apartments but overall, those areas are still in bad shape.

[Cirrus]

Having a spattering of historic buildings left over isn't the same as having a functioning neighborhood.

I've never been to Houston (except the airport), so I really don't know, but what y'all are saying isn't necessarily mutually exclusive.

[photoLith]

AusHou and Shasta, Im talking about the neighborhoods that directly surround downtown.



Red - Freemans town, this neighborhood historically no longer exists and today is tin sided apartments/condos and suburban styled apartment complexes. There is about 4 blocks of good urban development here, but mostly, its pretty ugly.

Blue - this no longer exists at all, there are about 4 or so condo low rises and a couple mid rise 60s apartments and such in this once large and historic neighborhood but thats about it. Yes, Disco Green and such is there now, but it no longer functions as a neighborhood would.

Light Green - this area has been greatly altered and or is a ghetto and is in bad shape.

Yellow - this area is semi decent now and is getting better with true new urbanist styled developments, but still, theres much needed to restore it as a neighborhood.

Purple - this neighborhood is the only mostly intact historic neighborhood close to downtown, I think its considered part of the heights. Its mostly preserved and pretty nice.

These were the only areas I was talking about that had been destroyed or greatly altered.

[Shasta]

Again, you are stating your opinion as fact.

You've outlined in the above map the following;

PINK- Old Sixth Ward. This isn't the Heights. This is Houston's first protected landmark neighborhood. It remains fairly intact with houses that look like this;



This neighborhood is hardly a ghetto. The above home is priced at $399,900 and was built in 1896. It has been slowly gentrified for a couple of decades now. The northern boundary of this neighborhood is Washington Avenue; the same Washington Avenue that is Houston's new restaurant/bar scene.

RED- Yes, this was Freedman's Town or the Old 4th Ward. Yes, most of it is gone. However, quite frankly, this is a GOOD thing. The Old 4th Ward was in rapid decline for decades and was losing population for years. The housing stock was almost all owned by slum lords and the poverty here was astonishing. I do not love all of the new development here, but I'll sure take this over the alternative of not "improving" and continuing into oblivion. Here's an example of what was there (remaining dump) and a photo of the new park and townhomes that have sprouted up nearby;





That looks like progress to me.

YELLOW- Seriously, this is the one that makes you look ill-informed. This section of your map includes northwestern Midtown and deep Montrose. It's home to several major developments like Post Midtown Square (the best mixed used development in town) and the Montrose has been one of Houston's best neighborhoods for decades full of houses, apartments, and condos. Prices in this area go well above $1,000,000.

[Shasta]

BLUE- You are correct with this one. This residential neighborhood is long gone. However, now it is home to Minute Maid Park, the Toyota Center, The George R Brown Convention Center, the Pavilions, the entire Houston Center complex including brand new Hess Tower, Discovery Green Park, St Joseph's Medical Center, the South Texas College of Law, The new One Park Place apartments, the Four Seasons Hotel and Condos, and much more. There was NO WAY a neighborhood of single family homes was going to survive literally five blocks away from the center of downtown.

That said, some of the Southern parts of your map still remain largely residential, especially just on the other side of the Pierce in Eastern Midtown and the Third Ward. While most of the old homes have vanished to make way for condos, there are still some hanging on like these;







However, many more were lost decades ago to speculative development and the decline of the area. Vacant lots were found all over in this area. Now, many have turned into developments like these;









view from a roof deck


While I could do without all the gates, I understand why they are there since this is still an area in transition. However, it is far from being a ghetto. Most of the new condos run upwards of $350,000 these days.

All pics are courtesy of har.com and represent properties currently for sale.

[Lakelander]

Here's Jacksonville, FL. Surface parking lots and underutilized demolished building sites shown in red.

[photoLith]

^
Dude, you didnt even read my comment Shasta, I said the one outlined in pink is still mostly intact, sheesh.

YELLOW- Seriously, this is the one that makes you look ill-informed. This section of your map includes northwestern Midtown and deep Montrose. It's home to several major developments like Post Midtown Square (the best mixed used development in town) and the Montrose has been one of Houston's best neighborhoods for decades full of houses, apartments, and condos. Prices in this area go well above $1,000,000.

You obviously didnt read my comment on that one either, I said its making progress with new urbanist infill, I was making the argument that the historic neighborhoods mostly all around downtown are destroyed and replaced with mostly pretty terrible suburban like architecture, which is a fact and not just opinion.

[hartfordite]

not sure if it's already been posted (haven't read through all the comments) but UConn researchers have been working on this for a while.

http://www.planetizen.com/node/44254

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/...,2147088.story

[TommyCarcetti]

Posted by NorthaBmore on Syscrapercity.com

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...1255791&page=2

As you can see, Baltimore is in better shape than its sunbelt friends. This photo is from 2010.

[M II A II R II K]

Looking at Street Area Percentages and Surface Parking


December 12, 2011

By Charlie Gardner

Read More: http://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/2011...reet-area.html

Several months ago I posted a chart in which I calculated the proportion of land given over to buildable space, right-of-ways and park space for each of 22 cities, or city neighborhoods. In response, one commenter suggested that I perform the same exercise with off-street parking included as a separate category. Although the work of Chris McCahill, which I featured last week, does just this for a number of cities, another commenter directed me to this thread at Skyscraper Page, where a number of people have mapped surface parking lots for several American cities. I'd like to feature three of those here (which I've further edited to show parking structures and park space), while adding one of my own. No guarantee of perfect accuracy is given.

- Although these numbers are interesting enough on their own, I bring them up to emphasize the importance of the street grid in determining the balance of buildable to non-buildable land. Even the difference in unbuilt area between the downtowns most dominated by surface lots, and those most built out, as is the case for Houston and Washington, is no greater than the difference between Washington and the European cities with the most generous street allotments – the Paris of Haussmann, with its broad boulevards, imperial Vienna of the 19th century, and Barcelona's Eixample, all of which devote around 25 percent of their area to streets.

.....

Chart

http://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/2011...-building.html






Red shows surface parking, orange shows above-ground parking garages, and green shows park space:

Original work: photoLith

Houston, TX
Surface parking: 21.3%
Garage parking: 3.7%
Street area: 39.7%
Total area for auto transit/storage: 64.7%
Park space: 2.6% (1.1% exluding Discovery Green)






Little Rock, AR
Surface parking: 26.5%
Garage parking: 2.7%
Street area: 32.0%
Total area for auto transit/storage: 61.2%
Park space: 0.0%






Milwaukee, WI
Surface parking: 11.5%
Garage parking: 3.8%
Street area: 38.8%
Total area for auto transit/storage: 54.1%
Park space: 1.5%






Original work: Cirrus

Washington, DC
Surface parking: 1.1%*
Garage parking: 0.0%
Street area: 43.3%
Total area for auto transit/storage: 44.4%
Park space: 2.53% (5.00% including Ellipse)
*Much of this is the large lot to the west scheduled for redevelopment as CityCenter

[dbartman]

Can someone repost the images from the first page that are not showing up?

[trueviking]

here is winnipeg.

its not actually as bad as it seems.....the ones shaded in yellow are being filled.

the biggest lots on the right were not long ago industrial land that is today being reclaimed by the city....20 years ago everything to the right of the main line was a rail yard....today it is the jewel of the city, called the forks...you can see the human rights museum under construction....the lots across from it will be a mixed use development....the big one below the ballpark is owned by the city and will be developed but they are looking to find the highest bidder.

the string of lots north of that was also railway wasteland on the fringe of downtown....it is now becoming a trendy residential neighbourhood.

still a long way to go but its getting better.

[tradephoric]

How could we forget Motor City:


(yellow=on street parking, red & purple=parking structures (above and below ground)

[jd3189]

In a sad way,it makes sense.

[Mister F]

Fascinating thread. Really gives you an idea of which cities would be interesting to walk around in. Some of them are really depressing.

Is anybody going to do some cities outside North America? Even European cities have surface parking lots!

[Shawn]

0% of Tokyo is dedicated to parks and plazas, eh?

[mhays]

Yeah, that's bizarre.

Sometimes a list is based too narrowly, like only including City-owned parks but not federal parks, privately-owned parks, college campuses, etc. The federal thing probably applies to Tokyo's big central park. Otherwise, maybe they meant less than 0.5, rounded to 0. I'm no expert, but might that be reasonable?