Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Parking Madness 2018

Parking Madness 2018: Houston vs. Jacksonville

1:22 PM EDT on March 27, 2018

Your NCAA bracket may be busted but we've got a fresh new Sweet 16 for you here at Parking Madness, Streetsblog's annual tournament to name and shame the worst parking craters in America.

In the sixth year of this competition, there's still no shortage of entries terrible enough to make the cut. We narrowed down to this field of 16 parking abominations from a batch of reader submissions that proved once again the supply of parking-scarred American cities is truly bottomless.

There are no second chances in Parking Madness -- once a crater competes in the tourney, it can't come back for another run at the title. But some cities have more than one parking atrocity, and to kick things off, we have two towns that have competed before. Houston and Jacksonville give us a classic match-up between a stadium parking bomb and a nasty urban redevelopment project.

Houston

houston_stadium_crater

Stadium parking craters have a long and storied tradition in this tournament, and Houston's is one of the biggest. The sports venue and convention center cluster known as NRG Park (formerly Reliant Park) is 305 acres large, and most of that land is consumed by parking.

Like other forms of urban parking blight, sports stadium complexes are often subsidized to a scandalous degree. It's hard to believe how much public money goes toward creating huge dead zones that generate large volumes of traffic on the rare occasion they're in use. Houston has a lot of urgent rebuilding needs following Hurricane Harvey, and the powers that be think car storage is one of them: Harris County just approved $105 million to refurbish the Astrodome (where the Astros haven't played in years), including ... a 1,400-space garage.

Jacksonville

jacksonville_crater

This is what remains of the LaVilla neighborhood in Jacksonville, just west of downtown. Much of the area was razed in the 1990s, our anonymous submitter informs us, in a failed redevelopment scheme:

The proverbial phoenix has not risen from the ashes more than 20 years later and contains parking lots, empty fields (used as parking) and suburban style development within the city's grid.

Some of these parking lots serve stations for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority's "Skyway Express" -- an automated monorail that, in the words of our nominator, moves people "from nowhere to... well, kinda nowhere."

Vote below to decide which parking crater advances to round two.

parking_madness_2017

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

City Pays $150K to Settle Suit Over Cops Who Harassed Man Who Reported Police Parking Misconduct

Justin Sherwood and his lawyer will pocket $152,000 to settle his federal civil rights suit against the city and several officers who harassed him following his 311 calls.

September 28, 2023

Police Brass Gets Booed During E-Vehicle Safety Alliance Meeting for Applauding Deliveristas

Attendees of the E-Vehicle Safety Alliance's latest meeting castigated a Transportation Bureau deputy inspector for saying that delivery workers are responsive to safety issues.

September 28, 2023

Thursday’s Headlines: Unsafe School Streets Edition

A school crossing guard was injured by a drunk driver on Tuesday. Plus more news.

September 28, 2023

EYES ON THE STREET: Drivers Dominate Former W. 22nd Open Street

Meh. The barriers are gone and the cars are back on W. 22nd, but some spaces for people remain.

September 28, 2023

‘Not Grieving Alone’: A Father’s Artistic Journey After Losing Two Kids to Road Violence

Colin Campbell and his wife Gail Lerner lost both their children in a car crash with impaired driver. Now, it's a show.

September 28, 2023
See all posts