Between the Lines: Interesting article about the dynamics of designing parking in Los Angeles. Thoughout the article weaves the fact that L.A. is a city built around parking lots — that type of land usage is the single biggest thing that defines the city.
Our downtown contains more parking spaces per acre than any other city in the world and has been adding them at a rate of about 1,000 a year for a century. If you grew up here, the earliest and most essential phrase drilled into you by adults–“Remember, we’re in blue Mickey”–was uttered in a parking lot bigger than Disneyland itself. Angelenos can immediately recognize outsiders, lost souls seen wandering through parking garages with no memory of where the Corolla sits
Lots of information about parking theory — how it works, how cities attempt to manage it, and how it has defined Los Angeles over the years.
(Of course, if you’re Miami, you just build a parking ramp so gorgeous that people want to hold wedding receptions in it.)