@kkkk-wg6je
This is one of those “well, duh” plans that most citys somehow struggle to implement.
@serbkebab2763
Worth mentioning the "heat island effect". All that asphalt from parking lots traps heat and causes the local environment to be much hotter than if covered by grass, for example.
@Jarekthegamingdragon
Here in Portland, there's a neighborhood called Lents. In the last 10 years, they tore down a crappy strip club and used the empty lot across the street to build up high rise apartments with shops on the bottom floor. They did this for that entire area without displacing any one. That neighborhood went from being referred to as felony flats to being a desirable neighborhood with a good amount of low income housing. The difference is insane. It feels like a mini downtown now and people actually WANT to be there. There's a real community feel. These changes need to happen. Edit: No, I do not care if you're going to leave some stupid snarky comment about Portland while you live across the country and have never been here before. Locals know the city, you don't. We do not care what you have to say.
@Lysander45
It is also harder for NIMBY types to claim that a parking lot or vacant lot is a vital part of local culture or a historic location.
@statelyelms
My small city's doing a lot of infill. A brand new provincial courthouse is already going up on, and a new Performing Arts centre is being planned to be built on, a large parking lot just adjacent to the downtown. They also took some parking away from the large surface parking lot to build a skatepark, and took some more from the smaller one to renovate the city square.. and then several empty lots used as parking "temporarily" have actually been turned around and turned into office buildings, planned mixed-use buildings, large apartment buildings with ground floor uses etc.. and this is a very small city, and only within the last few years! We're doing better!
@Westlander857
It’s definitely worked for us here in Tucson. 15 years ago, our downtown was completely dead. Just a bunch of empty parking lots and disused buildings. Thanks to infill and a big investment push from the city, it’s thriving again. Lots of new housing, hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. If you go there on a weekend especially, it’s packed with people. Infill can be an amazing thing when done right.
@barryrobbins7694
So many apartment complexes are basically parking lots with apartments in the middle. If residents had better transportation options, they could reduce parking to make complexes look more like park.
@pluey200
My small city in NE Ohio is currently using parking lots to build mixed-use buildings and a hotel downtown. I’m proud of my city for that
@simonkemfors
Infill development along a local bike path has made it feel safer. Biking along parking lots, empty lots, and low density industrial at night is spooky, man. Now, there are always people around if anything happens. I guess that's not very profound, but just something I have thought about when going through there
@spybloom
There's a plan for infill in my Green Bay suburb that'll take over the space where a Shopko used to be. I'm so excited for if it actually happens, because the proposed plan would take out the big department store and parking lot and create a new walkable and mixed-use area right next to downtown
@SaveMoneySavethePlanet
I love that your argument basically boils down to “infill development saves us money and reduces our emissions.” I’m a pretty big fan of that type of argument 😊
@MechanicWolf85
In Dallas Texas I often pass through a row of new apartment buildings that have been built in replacement of warehouses and parking lots, they are amazing to pass by and serve to increase the value of the area by a ton, they look so modern and shiny despite being affordable
@unknownfascio7769
I looked at my city's downtown on google maps and saw that 40% of the land use was either vacant lots or parking lots. Not to mention that 1/4th of all buildings were permanently closed. if infill development can improve my city financially then we should try it. I'm tired of being poor.
@tylerjames7449
I work at a community organization (Milwaukee) and yesterday we were literally just talking about this. Thanks for the video!
@swrieden
Glad to see plenty of San Diego clips in this video. The city has gone all in on urban infill over the past decade, especially in Mission Valley along a light rail line. They've built a large development called Civita on a ridge and old quarry, a golf course is being converted, a blighted area called Grantville is replacing used car dealerships with 6-8 story apartments, and the old Chargers stadium was demolished and downsized with the excess parking planned as college housing and a SDSU campus extension. I love to see it.
@JesusManera
As an Australian who has travelled around most of the US many times, it always shocked me how much "wasted space" was in so many American cities. Where I'm from, you would just never, ever see a vacant block in the inner city (other than active construction sites). They're just too valuable. You would also never see a block of surface parking close to the inner city. And this is Australia we're talking about too - not Europe - hardly a beacon of urbanism by global standards. But every bit of potential value is almost always extracted from every piece of inner city land here, and it's hard to fathom that not being the case, which is why my US travels were so eye-opening.
@alexhaowenwong6122
Golf courses are prime infill opportunities. In San Diego, a 27-hole golf course in the inner city is being redeveloped into 4,300 units and 1M sq ft office space with its own light rail station.
@bearcubdaycare
Researching my family's genealogy, I've noticed that most lived in single family homes, or sometimes townhouses/rowhouses. The difference for the single family homes was the reduced setbacks, particularly on the sides. Even just this facilitates a much more walkable community. Many cities are dense enough for good transit even with this, and many people prefer single family, or maybe townhouse, at least once they have children. I think that urbanists would benefit from avoiding falling in the Borg cube around train station mentality, as the only solution. Mid rise around a transit stop can be popular with young adults without children yet, or with young children, and could be with retirees I think, but dense walkable single family neighborhoods can be more of interest for others. And still perfectly compatible with walkable neighborhoods and transit.
@kostasjezuz4846
You should also mention that the parking spaces don't necessarily have to be lost, they can be moved underground, beneath the high-rise multi-use buildings.
@CityBeautiful