Urban Issues

Surface Parking Lots: A Downtown Vibrancy Killer

July 7, 2011 50 comments  Print Article

According to Downtown Vision (DVI), more than 50% of downtown Jacksonville's streetscape consists of "dead space" - either parking lots, garages, vacant buildings, or buildings less than 25% occupied. This collection of aerials visually highlight the impact dead spaces (surface parking and underutilized vacant property) in downtown Jacksonville and a number of cities across North America have. Naturally, those with the least amount of surface lots tend to be the most vibrant pedestrian-scale environments.

Jacksonville, FL

Red = surface parking or vacant property with no building on site.

Austin, TX

courtesy of photolitherland at www.skyscraperpage.com

Boston, MA

courtesy of photolitherland at www.skyscraperpage.com

Chicago, IL

courtesy of emathias at www.skyscraperpage.com.