Winner of the 2017 Parking Madness Tournament Announced

Streetsblog has announced the winner of its 2017 Parking Madness tournament, with the championship going to Denver.

Here, Angie Schmitt explains the origins of the contest, and the reasons why Denver came out ahead:

For the tournament this year we focused on parking craters near transit stations to highlight how American cities are failing to support their transit infrastructure with walkable development. And Denver’s monster parking crater is a classic of wasted urban potential: a huge swathe of land close to downtown, served by three light rail stations, and overwhelmed by massive parking lots for sports stadiums that barely get used much of the year.

The parking crater in question surrounds the Pepsi Center, home to the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association, the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League. Schmitt cites the expertise of Ken Schroeppel, a planning professor at University of Colorado Denver and blogger at Denver Urbanism, who estimates that there are 50 acres of parking surrounding the Pepsi Center and another 15 acres nearby.

Schroeppel is an active advocate for infill development on the parking lots, and Denver Planning Department spokesperson Andrea Burns also voices support for redevelopment in the area, as reflected in the city's 2007 Downtown Area Plan.