Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In

We're two weeks into our Parking Madness competition, and only a few parking craters are still standing.

Today's Elite Eight matchup pairs a Bay Area suburb with America's third largest city: It's El Cerrito, California vs. Chicago.

First up is El Cerrito, which was singled out for shame by one of our readers because of this crater's proximity to a BART station providing quick access to San Francisco.

bart1
false

The submitter pointed out that almost every BART station looks something like this, so in a sense the El Cerrito parking crater is standing in for the failure of an entire region to produce walkable development near transit.

Meanwhile, the Chicago crater suffers from sports venue syndrome:

chicago
false

We've seen this pretty consistently throughout the competition: In St. Louis, Grand Rapids, and Chicago, the spaces around public arenas are ghost towns inhabited only by cars.

This area, readers tell us, is especially disappointing because it has good transit access and is less than two miles away from the Loop. What a far cry from the walkability of Wrigleyville.

Tell us which crater you think deserves to reach the Final Four of Parking Madness.

parking_madness_2014_10
false

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Andy Byford’s ‘Trump Card’ On Penn Station Keeps Wrecking New York’s Infrastructure Projects

What will become of the Amtrak executive's plans for Penn Station under President Trump?

February 6, 2026

FLASHBACK: What Happened To Car-Free ‘Snow Routes’ — And Could They Have Helped City Clear the Streets?

Remember those bright red signs that banned parking from snow emergency routes? Here is the curious story of how New York City abandoned a key component of its snow removal system.

February 6, 2026

Council Transportation Chair Vows To Take On Drivers: ‘I Don’t Want To Just Futz Around the Edges’

Streetsblog grilled new chairman Shaun Abreu, who says he wants to bring more life and fewer cars to the street.

February 6, 2026

Friday’s Headlines: New York’s Strongest Edition

It's still snow problem around town. Plus other news.

February 6, 2026

Budget Crunch: Advocates Push Mamdani For Massive Fair Fares Expansion

The expansion would offer free transit on the subway and bus for people making up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level, which is not a lot.

February 5, 2026
See all posts